为什么 wèishénme▶ tại sao

Stroke order

为什么 is written in 11 strokes across 3 characters.

• 为 — 4 strokes
• 什 — 4 strokes
• 么 — 3 strokes

Senses

1. why?
2. for what reason?

Example sentences

• 为什么您在这儿？Wèishénme nín zài zhèr?Why are you here?
• 它为什么不吃米饭？Tā wèishénme bù chī mǐfàn?Why doesn’t it eat rice?
• 你为什么在这里？Nǐ wèishénme zài zhèlǐ?Why are you here?
• 他为什么不来？Tā wèishénme bù lái?Why does he not come?

Related words

• 因为……所以……bởi vì…nên…
• 为cho
• 为了để; nhằm để
• 什么cái gì, tại sao
• 多么như vậy
• 怎么thế nào, làm sao

为什么 is pronounced wèishénme and means “tại sao”. You will meet it in HSK 2, a band of the Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi — the standard test of Chinese proficiency. Most learners can pick 为什么 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.