Chinese grammar: Placement of question words

How does one ask questions in Chinese? This article will tell you how questions are formed and wher the questions words are supposed to go. After all, one of the best ways to learn is to ask questions!

Structure

Question words are one way to form questions in Chinese. In English, question words are also known as wh-words, as the majority of them begin with wh:

In English, question words have to be placed at the beginning of the sentence. This involves changing the word order to allow this rearrangement. In Chinese, using question words is a lot simpler. You simply place a question word in the place of the thing you want to ask about. Nothing needs to be rearranged.

So if the statement is

Wǒ shì Xiǎo Lǐ .
我 是 小李。

I am Xiao Li.

the question form - "who are you?" - has the same word order:

Nǐ shì shuí ？
你 是 谁？

Who are you?

This works for whatever it is you want to ask about. The question form has the same word order as the statement form.

An example for asking and telling what:

Zhè shì shénme ？
这 是 什么？[/ cn]

What is this?

An example for asking and telling wher:
[cn]Nǐ zài nǎ ér ？
你 在 哪儿？

wher are you?

An example for asking and telling when:

Nǐ shénme shí hou lái de ？
你 什么时候 来的？

When are you coming?

An example for asking and telling why:

Nǐ wèi shén me xué zhōnɡwén ？
你 为什么 学 中文

？

Why do you study Chinese?

An example for asking and telling how:

Nǐ zěnme xuéxí zhōnɡwén ？
你 怎么 学习 中文？

How do you study Chinese?