什么 shénme▶ qué, por qué

Stroke order

什么 is written in 7 strokes across 2 characters.

• 什 — 4 strokes
• 么 — 3 strokes

Senses

1. what?
2. something; anything

Example sentences

• 你想吃什么？Nǐ xiǎng chī shénme?What do you want to eat?
• 这是什么？Zhè shì shénme?What is this?

Related words

• 怎么cómo
• 怎么样qué tal, qué te parece
• 为什么por qué
• 多么tal

什么 is pronounced shénme and means “qué, por qué”. You will meet it in HSK 1, a band of the Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi — the standard test of Chinese proficiency. Most learners can pick 什么 out of a list long before they can reach for it unprompted, and the gap between those two closes only with repeated recall. LexiTrail schedules the next sighting from how well you did on the last.