(shéi) - who, whom in Mandarin
shéiTraditional: 誰
Translation
who, whom
Word origin
谁 (shéi), also read shuí, is a phono-semantic compound of 讠, the speech radical, and 隹 (zhuī), a short-tailed bird, as the phonetic. It is the interrogative pronoun 'who' or 'whom'.
- Origin
- phono-semantic compound
- Root
- 讠(speech radical) + 隹 (zhuī, phonetic)
Stroke order
谁
Examples
？
Do you know who wrote this?
口，。
There is someone at the door; I do not know who it is.
？？
Who are you waiting for? Has he not arrived yet?
敲？
Who is knocking at the door?
？
Who is willing to help me?
Used in
Grammar articles
(4)Mandarin Verb Conjugation: Why It Doesn't Exist and What Replaces It
Mandarin Question Formation: 吗, V-Not-V, 还是, and the In-Situ Wh-Word System
The Mandarin 是…的 (shì...de) Construction: Highlighting When, Where, and How Something Happened
Yes-No Questions in Mandarin: 吗 (ma), Echo Answers, and the Bounce-Back 呢 (ne)
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Go to my review queueThis word is part of lesson 1.