(shén) - what (component of 什么) in Mandarin

shén

Traditional: 什

#980 of 5,000 Core 1000

Translation

what (component of 什么)

Word origin

什 (shén) is the person radical 亻 beside 十 'ten'. It first meant a squad of ten or 'assorted', and in the modern word 什么 (shénme) it is used purely for its sound as part of the interrogative 'what'.

Origin: phono-semantic compound
Root: 亻(person radical) + 十 (shí, phonetic)

Stroke order

什

Examples

？

When does it start?

？

What is your name?

。

He knows everything.

。

I do not know what he is saying.

？

What would you like to eat?

什 (shén) is a component most commonly seen in 什么 meaning what.

Where this fits

The 1,000 most common Mandarin words

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Appears in 8 words

Multi-character compounds in the corpus that contain 什.

什么shén mewhat 什么shénmewhat 什么时候shénme shíhouwhen 为什么wèishénmewhy 为什么wèi shén mewhy, for what reason 干什么gàn shén mewhat are (you/they) doing, why do that 没什么méi shén meit's nothing, never mind, no big deal 什么样shén me yàngwhat kind of, what sort of

Used in

Grammar articles

(17)

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Mandarin · Free printables

什: worksheet, infographic and listicle

Free printable study downloads for the Mandarin word "什" (what (component of 什么)): 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 20.