HSK 1 · Question Words

什么 shénme “what” in Chinese

Traditional 什麼

What 什么 means

  1. what
  2. what?
  3. something
  4. anything

How to say 什么

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale什shén2nd tone, rising
  • Pitch chart of the neutral tone: short and light, with no contour of its own么meneutral tone, light and short

Grey pinyin is a neutral tone: say it short and light. More on the neutral tone

什么 in a sentence

  1. 你能告诉我这是什么吗？

    Nǐ néng gàosu wǒ zhè shì shénme ma?

    Can you tell me what this is?

    Sentence #333977 from Tatoeba

  2. 你问她了吗？她说了什么？

    Nǐ wèn tā le ma? Tā shuō le shénme?

    Did you ask her? What did she say?

    Sentence #2367260 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 我应该什么时候打电话？

    Wǒ yīnggāi shénme shíhou dǎ diànhuà?

    When should I call?

    Sentence #12686875 from Tatoeba

How 什么 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 什 (shén) with each of its parts in a different colour
什shénwhat
  • 亻person form of 人 · rén
  • 十ten · shí
The character 么 (me) with each of its parts in a different colour
么mesuffix, used to form interrogative 什么
  • 丿slash · piě
  • 厶private · sī

How to write 什么

什 4 strokes · 么 3 strokes

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

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

Words related to 什么

Words with 什

为什么wèishénme · why

Words with 么

怎么zěnme · how怎么样zěnmeyàng · how is it那么nàme · like that这么zhème · so much为什么wèishénme · why多么duōme · how怎么办zěnmebàn · what should I do?

More words: Question Words

谁shéi · who哪nǎ · which哪儿nǎr · where怎么zěnme · how怎么样zěnmeyàng · how is it多少duōshǎo · how many哪里nǎlǐ · where?哪个nǎge · which one?

FAQs

什么 (shénme) means “what” or “what?”. It is an HSK 1 word, so it is one of the words learners meet early.
Say it shénme: shén with a 2nd tone, then me with a neutral 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, 什么 is written 什麼. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type shenme with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 什么 from the suggestions. Typing shenme into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
什么 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.