Question Word What In Chinese | Ask People's Name In Chinese
- Question Word What in Chinese: 什么
- Ask people's name in Chinese with last name, first name, full name and nickname
VOCABULARY
| HSK | CHINESE | PINYIN | P.O.S | ENGLISH | Audio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 你 | nǐ | pr. | you | |
| 1 | 什么 | shénme | q pr. | what | |
| 1 | 什① | shén | / | / | |
| 1 | 么② | me | / | / |
NOTE: ①② Neither 什 nor 么 is a word. They have to be combined with another character to form a word. You can learn more about Characters vs. Words.
GRAMMAR
Grammar 1: Question Word What in Chinese 什么 · HSK 1
shénme 什么 what
什么 is the Question Word what in Chinese. But unlike in English, when we use the Question Word 什么, it will not be automatically put at the beginning of the sentence. For example:
- nǐ xìng shénme
你姓什么？
what is your last name - nǐ jiào shénme
你叫什么？
what is your (first) name
Grammar 2: Chinese Sentence Word Order · HSK 1
In Chinese, generally the sentence word order follows this structure:
Subject ➜ Verb(Predicate) ➜ Object
So the word order is the same whether it is to ask people's name in Chinese or to answer the question in Chinese. Here are the examples:
| S | V | O | ||
| 1 | wǒ 我 I |
jiào 叫 am called |
Dàwèi 大卫 David |
。 |
| nǐ 你 you |
jiào 叫 are called |
shénme 什么 what |
？ | |
| 2 | wǒ 我 I |
xìng 姓 last name is |
Lǐ 李 Li |
。 |
| nǐ 你 you |
xìng 姓 last name is |
shénme 什么 what |
？ |
Grammar 3: Ask People's Name in Chinese with 你叫什么 · HSK 1
nǐ jiào shén me 你叫什么？what are you called
To ask people's name in Chinese, there are multiple ways. We can use 你叫什么 to ask people's (1)full name; (2) first name or nick name that is not one-character. For example:
Ask/answer with first name
Q: nǐ jiào shén me
你叫什么？
what are you called
A: wǒ jiào Dàwèi
我叫大卫。
my name is David
Ask/answer with nickname - when the first name is one character
Q: nǐ jiào shén me
你叫什么？
what are you called
A: wǒ jiào Lónglong
我叫龙龙。
my name is Longlong
Ask/answer with full name - when the first name is one character
Q: nǐ jiào shén me
你叫什么？
what are you called
A: wǒ jiào Chéng Lóng
我叫成龙。
my name is Cheng Long
Grammar 4. Ask People's Name in Chinese with 你姓什么 · HSK 1
nǐ xìng shén me 你姓什么？what is your last name
We can use this structure to ask people's last name. This way to ask people's name in Chinese is usually more formal or more polite. It could sound a little distant as well.
Q: nǐ xìng shén me
你姓什么？
what is your last name
A: wǒ xìng Lǐ
我姓李。
my last name is Li
How do I type the Chinese characters on my keyboard?
Please refer to our lesson on how to type Chinese characters.
谢谢郝力。我对shenme有同样的问题。
Lili, I hear you saying shemme with the n changed to be the same as the following m of me, and I assume that you are a very careful speaker; in general, what I hear is shemme as you say it, but rarely I do hear shenme. Why do some say shenme and others shemme? Is shenme with a true n sound more formal, or what?
It’s good that you noticed the pronunciation difference. When speaking in natural language flow the pronunciation gets altered. Consonants and vowels are likely to have Pronunciation Variations because of the neighboring sounds, it is a common language phenomenon and it is not limited to Chinese language only. Same reason why tools like Siri might speak in perfect pronunciation but just sound forced and not like real human beings.
什么 shenme is a very commonly used word in Chinese, it is very colloquial, making it even more likely to have Pronunciation Variations. I would agree that the “n” in shenme might not sound like a standard “n” (the tongue position is not high enough), but probably not as low as “m”(“shemme”).
wow! Very well explained Miss Lily, thank you for that
Years ago I learned some pinyin at a University in Shanghai, but only for about a month. There I learned the question – 你叫什么名字？Why do you teach only 你叫什么？I know that both versions have the same meaning, but when do I use either version?
你叫什么名字 is literally “you are called what name”.
你叫什么 is literally “you are called what”.
They are the same. And you can use either one for most situations.
你叫什么名字 might be a tiny little bit more polite or formal because it’s longer. Usually longer sentences sound nicer while shorter sentences might sound more straight-forward.
Here I teach 你叫什么 instead of 你叫什么名字 because this is the beginner’s first lesson and since 你叫什么 and 你姓什么 share the same construction it’s a little easier. The word 名字 and the sentence 你叫什么名字 will be in Lesson 7.