(shén me) - what in Mandarin

shénme

Traditional: 什麼

HSK 1

#12 of 5,000 Core 1000

Translation

what

Word origin

什么 (shén me) pairs 什 (shén), the person radical 亻 with 十 as phonetic, and 么 (me), a light grammatical particle. The two combine purely for sound into the interrogative 'what'.

Origin: compound
Root: 什 (shén, 亻person radical + 十 phonetic) + 么 (me, particle)

Stroke order

什

么

Examples

？

What is this?

？

What do you want to eat?

？

What is your name?

？

What book are you reading?

？

What happened outside?

什么 (shénme) is the question word for what, used to ask about objects, things, or identity.

Where this fits

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Used in

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Mandarin · Free printables

什么: worksheet, infographic and listicle

Free printable study downloads for the Mandarin word "什么" (what): 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.