English question words are restless: to ask a wh-question you drag the question word to the front of the sentence and prop it up with do — "What did you buy?", "Who did you see?" Chinese question words never move. 谁 (shéi, "who"), 什么 (shénme, "what") and 哪 (nǎ, "which") are grammatically plain nouns, and they sit exactly where the answer would sit — in the very slot the reply will fill. You form a question simply by dropping the question word into the noun-slot you're curious about and leaving everything else alone. This is called leaving the question word in situ ("in place"), and it is one of the tidiest features of Chinese grammar for an English speaker to exploit.
The answer's slot is the question word's slot
Compare the question and its answer: they have the identical word order, with the question word standing precisely where the answer goes. Nothing is fronted; no auxiliary is inserted.
你买什么？——我买苹果。
nǐ mǎi shénme? —— wǒ mǎi píngguǒ
What are you buying? — I'm buying apples. (informal) — 什么 sits in the object slot, exactly where 苹果 lands in the answer.
谁来了？——小王来了。
shéi lái le? —— Xiǎo Wáng lái le
Who's here? — Xiao Wang is. (informal) — 谁 sits in the subject slot, exactly where 小王 lands in the answer.
你要哪个？——我要这个。
nǐ yào nǎge? —— wǒ yào zhège
Which one do you want? — I want this one. (informal) — 哪个 mirrors 这个; the two swap in and out of the same slot.
The rule, then, is almost mechanical: find the slot you want to ask about, and put the question word there. Want to ask about the object? Put 什么 in the object position. About the subject? Put 谁 in the subject position. About location? Put 哪儿 where the place goes. The frame around it does not budge.
They are nouns, so they can be possessed and modified
Because 谁 and 什么 are genuine nouns, they slot into every construction a noun can. They take the possessive particle 的: 谁的书 (shéi de shū, "whose book"). And 什么 can sit in front of another noun as a modifier meaning "what kind of / what": 什么颜色 (shénme yánsè, "what colour"), 什么时候 (shénme shíhou, "what time / when"), 什么人 (shénme rén, "what kind of person").
这是谁的手机？
zhè shì shéi de shǒujī?
Whose phone is this? (informal) — 谁 + 的 forms the possessor, just like 老师的.
你喜欢什么颜色？
nǐ xǐhuan shénme yánsè?
What colour do you like? (informal) — 什么 modifies 颜色, asking 'what kind of colour'.
我们什么时候出发？
wǒmen shénme shíhou chūfā?
When are we leaving? (informal) — 什么时候 ('what time') is the everyday way to ask 'when'.
A note on 谁: it has two accepted pronunciations, shéi (colloquial, by far the more common in speech) and shuí (more formal, the "reading" pronunciation heard in news broadcasts and careful speech). They are the same word and the same character 谁; use shéi in conversation and you will always sound natural.
哪 needs a measure word; 谁 and 什么 don't
Two of the three stand alone as complete noun phrases: 谁 ("who") and 什么 ("what") need nothing after them. But 哪 ("which") is a selector, like 这/那 — it picks one out of a set — so it must take a measure word (or measure word + noun): 哪个 ("which one"), 哪本书 ("which book"), 哪位 ("which person, polite"). Bare 哪 cannot stand alone as "which."
你说的是哪部电影？
nǐ shuō de shì nǎ bù diànyǐng?
Which movie are you talking about? (informal) — 哪 + 部 + 电影; the measure word is obligatory, just as with 这/那.
这么多杯子，哪个是你的？
zhème duō bēizi, nǎge shì nǐ de?
So many cups — which one is yours? (informal) — 哪个 selects one from the set.
The same words as indefinites: 'someone / anything / nothing'
Here is where these words become genuinely powerful. 谁 and 什么 are not only question words — in the right frame they turn into indefinites meaning "someone / anyone," "something / anything," and, under negation, "nobody / nothing." The context tells you which reading applies; the word itself does not change.
冰箱里没有什么吃的。
bīngxiāng lǐ méiyǒu shénme chī de
There's not much to eat in the fridge. (informal) — under 没有, 什么 reads as 'anything / much', not 'what'.
外面好像有谁在敲门。
wàimiàn hǎoxiàng yǒu shéi zài qiāo mén
It sounds like someone's knocking at the door. (informal) — here 谁 means 'someone', an indefinite.
你想吃什么就吃什么。
nǐ xiǎng chī shénme jiù chī shénme
Eat whatever you want. (informal) — the 什么…就…什么 pattern makes 什么 mean 'whatever'.
That third pattern — the same question word appearing twice, linked by 就 — is a classic way to say "whatever / whoever / wherever": 谁想去谁就去 ("whoever wants to go, goes"), 你去哪儿我就去哪儿 ("wherever you go, I'll go"). The first 什么/谁 sets up an unknown, and the second refers back to the same one. Recognising this saves you from mis-reading such sentences as double questions.
Don't add 吗 — the question word already asks
A question that contains 谁 / 什么 / 哪 is already a question; it does not take the yes-no particle 吗 (ma). 吗 is for questions that have no question word (你去吗？ "Are you going?"). Piling 吗 onto a sentence that already has 什么 is the classic English-speaker slip. The one thing you can add is the softening particle 呢 (ne), which makes the question gentler but is optional.
你在找什么呢？
nǐ zài zhǎo shénme ne?
What are you looking for? (informal, softened) — 呢 gently softens; 吗 would be wrong here because 什么 already asks.
Common Mistakes
1. Fronting the question word, English-style. Leave it in situ, in the answer's slot.
❌ 什么你买？
Incorrect — Chinese doesn't move the question word to the front.
✅ 你买什么？
nǐ mǎi shénme?
What are you buying? — 什么 stays in the object slot.
2. Adding 吗 to a sentence that already has a question word. One question marker is enough.
❌ 你要哪个吗？
Incorrect — 哪个 already makes it a question; 吗 is redundant and wrong.
✅ 你要哪个？
nǐ yào nǎge?
Which one do you want? — no 吗 needed.
3. Leaving 哪 bare, without a measure word. 哪 selects, so it needs a measure word like 这/那.
❌ 你要哪？
Incomplete — 哪 alone can't stand as 'which'; add a measure word.
✅ 你要哪个？
nǐ yào nǎge?
Which one do you want? — 哪 + 个.
4. Inserting do-support or a 'to be'. There is no do and no dummy verb in Chinese questions; the verb stays exactly as in the statement.
❌ 谁是来了？
Incorrect — no 'do/be' is inserted; the verb 来 stands alone.
✅ 谁来了？
shéi lái le?
Who came? — just subject-slot 谁 + the plain verb.
5. Reading an indefinite 什么/谁 as a question. Under 没有 or in a 就-frame, they mean "anything / whoever," not "what / who."
✅ 今天没什么事。
jīntiān méi shénme shì
Nothing much is going on today. — 什么 here is 'anything/much', not a question.
Key Takeaways
- Chinese question words are nouns that stay in place (in situ): 谁, 什么, and 哪 + measure word sit exactly where the answer goes — no fronting, no do-support.
- To form a question, build the answer and swap in the question word: 谁 for a person, 什么 for a thing, 哪个 for a choice; the word order never changes.
- As nouns they take 的 (谁的书, "whose book") and can modify another noun (什么颜色, "what colour"); 哪 always needs a measure word, but 谁 and 什么 stand alone.
- The same words double as indefinites — "someone / anything / nothing" under the right context (没有什么, 有谁), and "whatever/whoever" in the doubled 什么…就…什么 frame.
- Never add 吗 to a question that already contains a question word; the optional softener is 呢.
- 谁 is pronounced shéi (colloquial) or shuí (formal) — same word, same character.
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- Question Words Stay In Place (In Situ)HSK 1 — The single most important rule for Chinese wh-questions: the question word sits exactly where the answer will sit. No fronting, no do-support, no reordering — 你去哪儿？ not ❌哪儿你去？ And because the question word already asks, you never add 吗.
- 这 / 那 / 哪 + Measure WordHSK 1 — The demonstratives 这 (zhè, 'this'), 那 (nà, 'that') and the question form 哪 (nǎ, 'which') cannot sit straight on a noun the way English 'this book' does — they need a measure word in between (这本书, 那个人, 哪辆车), exactly as numbers do, and you slot a number in for more than one (这三本书).
- 这儿/那儿/哪儿 and 这里/那里HSK 1 — 'Here', 'there' and 'where' are built transparently from the demonstratives you already know: add 儿 (r) or 里 (lǐ) to 这/那/哪 to get 这儿/这里 (here), 那儿/那里 (there), 哪儿/哪里 (where) — the 儿-forms colloquial and northern, the 里-forms neutral, and both are place nouns that slot in after 在, 去 and 到.
- There Isn't: Negating Existence with 没有HSK 1 — Chinese says 'there is' with 有, so 'there isn't' is 没有 — in the pattern Place + 没有 + Noun: 桌子上没有书 'there are no books on the table', 家里没有人 'nobody's home'. Existence is negated with 没, never 不, and the 有 stays before the noun.