Language/Mandarin-chinese/Grammar/Question-Words

Question Words (QW)

In the example “她给你什么？”, “什么” is a question word, meaning “what”. Other question words include “谁shuí” (who), “谁的shuíde” (whose), “哪里nǎlǐ” (where), “哪个nǎgè”(which), “怎么zěnme” (how), “什么 时候shénme shíhòu”(when), “为什么wèishénme” (why), etc.

In Chinese, the word order of the question is always the same as the word order of the answer. So, to answer this question, we simply replace “什么” with whatever you want to express. In contrast, the word order of the question in English is often different from that of the answer, e.g. Q: What do you want? A: I want a pen.

Remember that questions formed by using question words do not need question particle “吗”.

QW as Subject

S (QW) + V + O

• shuí chī pínɡɡuǒ？

谁 吃 苹果？

Who eats apples?

• wǒ chī pínɡɡuǒ.

我 吃 苹果。

I eat apples.

QW as Object

S + V + O (QW)

• nǐ chī shénme？

你 吃 什么？

What do you eat?

• wǒ chī pínɡɡuǒ.

我吃苹果。

I eat apples.

Question words can also precedes the noun to modify it

• nǐ xǐhuān shénme lǐwù.

你 喜欢 什么 礼物。

What gifts do you like?

• shuíde mínɡzi jiào xiǎomínɡ？

谁的 名字 叫 小明？

Whose name is called Xiao Ming?

References

More Chinese grammar lessons can be found here: https://www.hskcourse.com/hsk-grammar-exercises/