Beginner Lesson 8.1 – Question Word Who; Parents and Friends

Grammar 1: Question Word Who in Chinese 谁 · HSK 1

shéi; shuí 谁 who

谁 is the question word WHO in Chinese. It can be pronounced in two different ways: shéi or shuí. For example,

• nǐ shì shéi
  你是谁？
  who are you
• nǐ shì shuí
  你是谁？
  who are you

Dialogue example:

Q: tā shì shéi
      他是谁？
      who is he
A: tā shì wǒ de bàba
      他是我的爸爸。
      he is my dad

Q: tā shì shuí
      她是谁？
      who is she
A: tā shì wǒ de māma
      她是我的妈妈。
      she is my mom

Grammar 2: Sentence Word Order in Chinese · HSK 1

The sentence word order in Chinese goes like this:

Subject - Verb - Object or S - V - O for short

When we are asking a question, the word order does not change, it is still S-V-O:

Grammar 3: Omission of Possessive Particle 的 · HSK 1

When the Possessive Particle 的 goes after personal pronouns, you can usually skip 的 for people who have a very close relationship to you.

Grammar 4: Parents and Friends in Chinese · HSK 1

There is actually a word to say parents in Chinese, which is jiāzhǎng 家长. But for beginners, we can just say 爸爸妈妈 instead to mean the same thing. And to say friends in Chinese we can just say the word péngyou 朋友. If we want to be specific and say "more than one friend", we can use the Plural Particle 们 and say péngyoumen 朋友们.