Kilo Lingo

(zěn me yàng) - how, what do you think, how about in Mandarin

zěnmeyàng

Traditional: 怎麼樣

Line drawing of 怎么样
Coloured illustration of 怎么样
HSK 2
#221 of 5,000 Core 1000

Translation

how, what do you think, how about

Word origin

怎么样 (zěnmeyàng) 'how about, what do you think' is 怎么 'how' plus 样 (yàng, 'manner, appearance'). 样 is a phono-semantic compound with the 木 (mù, 'wood') radical and 羊 (yáng, 'sheep') as phonetic.

Origin
compound
Root
怎么 (how) + 样 (木 wood radical + 羊 phonetic, 'manner')

Stroke order

Stroke order for 怎

Stroke order for 么

Stroke order for 样

Examples

How are you?

What do you think of this?

How is he doing?

How have you been lately?

How is this film?

怎么样 (zěn me yàng) means how, what do you think, how about. It is used as a pronoun in everyday Mandarin speech.

Used in

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This word is part of lesson 5.