Chinese Grammar: Lesson: Asking Questions

Question words are another way to ask questions in Chinese. They are simple to use and don’t change the sentence structure at all.

Structure

You simply replace the element you want to ask about by the right question word and you’ve formed a question!

Example

If you want to ask who with 谁

他 是谁？
Who is he?

他 是我 爸爸。
He is my dad.

If you want to ask where with 哪儿

学校 在|哪儿？
Where is the school?

学校 在北京。
The school is in Beijing.

If you want to ask when with 什么时候

你 什么时候 去 中国？
When are you going to China?

我 下个月 去 中国。
I’m going next month.

An overview of the main question words

• 谁: who
  
• 哪: which
• 哪儿: where
• 什么: which/what
  
• 几: how many (for numbers below 10)
• 多少: how many (for numbers 10 and above)
• 怎么: how
• 怎么样: how
• 为什么: why
• 什么时候: when

Whatever the question, whether you want to ask who 谁, when 什么时候, where 哪儿, how 怎么, what 什么, how many 几 or even why 为什么, the sentence structure stays the same. Nothing needs to be rearranged. You just need to replace the element you want to ask about by the right question word. How great is that?