HSK 1 · Question Words

谁 shéi “who” in Chinese

Traditional 誰

What 谁 means

  1. who

How to say 谁

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale谁shéi2nd tone, rising

谁 in a sentence

  1. 桌子上的书是谁的？

    Zhuōzi shàng de shū shì shéi de?

    Whose book is this on the desk?

    Sentence #1933280 from Tatoeba

  2. 我们知道他们是谁。

    Wǒmen zhīdao tāmen shì shéi.

    We know who they are.

    Sentence #1833697 from Tatoeba

  3. 你的中文老师是谁？

    Nǐ de Zhōngwén lǎoshī shì shéi?

    Who is your Chinese teacher?

    Sentence #335142 from Tatoeba

  4. 谁在叫你的名字？

    Shéi zài jiào nǐ de míngzi?

    Who’s that calling your name?

    Sentence #13881218 from Tatoeba

How 谁 is built

Each colour is one part of the character. Parts repeat across thousands of characters, so learning them makes new words easier. See all 214 in our radicals chart.

The character 谁 (shéi) with each of its parts in a different colour
谁shéiwho
  • 讠speech form of 言 · yánMeaning part
  • 隹short-tailed bird · zhuīSound part

讠 hints at the meaning (speech); 隹 (zhuī) hints at the sound. Compare it with shéi.

How to write 谁

谁 10 strokes

Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.

谁 (shéi) stroke order chart: each stroke of the character in the order you write it
Stroke order chart for 谁 (shéi). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.

Words related to 谁

More words: Question Words

什么shénme · what哪nǎ · which哪儿nǎr · where怎么zěnme · how几jǐ · how many (small)多少duōshǎo · how many哪里nǎlǐ · where?哪个nǎge · which one?

In the Chinese zodiac

鸡jī · Year of the Rooster

谁 has 隹 (a bird) on the right.

FAQs

谁 (shéi) means “who”. It is an HSK 1 word, so it is one of the words learners meet early.
Say it shéi: shéi with a 2nd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
In Traditional characters, used in Taiwan and Hong Kong, 谁 is written 誰. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type shei with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 谁 from the suggestions. Typing shei into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
谁 is an HSK 1 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

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Sources: meaning and pinyin checked by a native Mandarin teacher against the official HSK lists. Extra meanings from CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Example sentences from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR). Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.