Kilo Lingo

(shéi) - who, whom in Mandarin

shéi

Traditional: 誰

Also read shuí formal or literary Mandarin

Line drawing of 谁
Coloured illustration of 谁
[ʂei˧˥] HSK 2
#67 of 5,000 Core 1000

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

Stroke order for 谁

Examples

Do you know who wrote this?

kǒu

There is someone at the door; I do not know who it is.

Who are you waiting for? Has he not arrived yet?

qiāo

Who is knocking at the door?

Who is willing to help me?

Where this fits

Used in

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Mandarin · Free printables

谁: worksheet, infographic and listicle

Free printable study downloads for the Mandarin word "谁" (who, whom): a worksheet with the answer key built in, an infographic, and a sentence listicle. Open any one to view, print or save.

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This word is part of lesson 1.