Free Chinese lessons 5: Who,When,Where,What and Why in Chinese

Learning Chinese isn’t a easy for most beginners. All you need is keeping on practicing and learning, besides you need to find a good teacher or resource which will help you learn Chinese better and faster. If you’re new to my website, don’t forget to come back again. I’m writing free Chinese lessons that you don’t want to miss. In this free Chinese lesson, I will teach you how to say 5 w’s, which is how to say “who, when, where, what and why” in Chinese.

You must have tons of questions what to ask when you are learning Chinese. However, you can’t even ask questions if you are totally beginner of Chinese learning. So I teach you the 5 W’s in Chinese, so that you will know how to ask questions.

If you don’t know how to pronounce those Chinese words or phrases, please listen to the audio clips and practice as much as you can. Now let me explain how to use them.

1. 谁 (Who or Whom)

You should be careful of the pronunciation of 谁 [shuí]. Why? because the standard HSK testing is a little different from the Pinyin [shuí] . If you didn’t practice it according to the Pinyin, then the sounds will not exactly the same as the standard. If you’ve leant “water” in Chinese. The Pinyin of “水” is [shuǐ]. [shuí] and [shuǐ] are almost the same, only the tone is different. But when you pronounce “谁”, the “sh” part are totally the same, but “ui” part is not. It’s not about tone are different, I mean the pronounce are totally changed. If you don’t have HSK test, then you don’t need to worry about that, just practice it according to the Pinyin(拼音) is ok.

Translate “Who is your father” into Chinese :

谁是你的爸爸(shuí shì nǐ de bà ba)

Translate “Who is there” into Chinese :

谁在那(shuí zài nà)

Translate “Who told you” into Chinese :

谁告诉你的(shuí gào sù nǐ de)

2. 什么 (What)

Translate “What is your name” into Chinese:

你叫什么名字 (nǐ jiào shén me míng zì )

Translate “What is this” into Chinese:

这是什么 (zhè shì shén me)

“什么” is a phrase which is composed of “什” and “么”. “什么” could be followed by something, someone. Let me make examples. 什么人(What people)? 什么事(What things)? 什么颜色(What color)? 什么意思(What’s the meaning)? etc. And basically it’s a question sentence when you see “什么”. The orders of Chinese is quite complicated. I’m not going show you right now. I will teach you when you already know some basics of Chinese.

3. 为什么 (why)

We’ve leant “What” in Chinese “什么”. And the Chinese word “为” literally means “for”. So combined “为” with “什么”. So you can think it is “For What?” which is “why” in Chinese.

Translate “Why do you like him” into Chinese:

你为什么喜欢他 (nǐ wèi shén me xǐ huān tā )

Translate “Why is the sky blue” into Chinese:

为什么天是蓝色的 (wèi shén me tiān shì lán sè de)

Translate “Why are you doing this” into Chinese:

你为什么这么做 (nǐ wèi shén me zhè me zuò )

“为什么” is the most used phrase to ask questions. There’re some patients to use “为什么” to ask questions or complain about something or someone.

• 为什么+someone+Verb

eg. 为什么他要走了(why is leaving).

eg. 为什么她哭了(why is she crying)

• 为什么+something+Verb

eg. 为什么天是蓝色的( Why is the sky blue )

eg. 为什么云动了( Why is the clouds moving )

• someone/something+为什么+Verb

Same as before, “someone/something”+ “为什么”= “为什么” + “someone/something” . Which means 为什么他要走了 =他为什么要走了.

4. 什么时候 (When)

This is becoming easy to learn after we’ve learned “什么”. And phrase “时候” literally means “Time”. So you can think”什么时候” is “What time”, that is “When”.

Translate “When will you arrive” into Chinese:

你什么时候到 (nǐ shén me shí hòu dào )

Translate “When will the airplane take off” into Chinese:

飞机什么时候起飞 (fēi jī shén me shí hòu qǐ fēi )

5. 哪 (Where)

Actually, “哪儿” and “哪里” are all means “where“ . If you’re preparing for HSK. Then the listening audio will use “哪儿” very frequently.

Translate “Where is the airport” into Chinese:

机场在哪儿 (jī chǎng zài nǎ ér )

Translate “Where is the airport” into Chinese:

你要去哪儿 (nǐ yào qù nǎ ér )

Translate “Where does your father work” into Chinese:

你爸爸在哪儿工作 (nǐ bà bà zài nǎ ér gōng zuò )

If you mean “located in where” then we will use preposition “在” before ”哪里“. And if you mean “go to where”, then it should be ”Verb“+”哪儿” in Chinese expression.

If you think it’s too complicated to learn as a beginners, then you just need to learn how to pronounce and recognize”谁who”,”什么what”,”为什么when”,”哪where”. Those basic words and phrases is quite widely used in our daily and HSK test. I will teach you more sentences later. Any questions, feel free to comment below.