If you learn one thing about Chinese questions, learn this: question words stay in place. English yanks its wh-words to the front and props them up with "do" — "What does he buy?", "Where are you going?" Chinese does neither. The interrogative word sits in the exact slot the answer will occupy, and everything else in the sentence stays frozen. To turn a statement into a question, you find the unknown piece, swap in a question word, and leave the rest untouched. Grammarians call this in situ ("in place"), and it makes Chinese wh-questions dramatically simpler than English ones — once you stop trying to move things.
The core move: swap the slot, change nothing else
Compare a statement with its question. The question word lands precisely where the answer sat; word order does not budge.
| Statement | Question | The swap |
|---|---|---|
| 他买书 (he buys books) | 他买什么？(what does he buy?) | 书 → 什么, in the object slot |
| 他去北京 (he goes to Beijing) | 他去哪儿？(where does he go?) | 北京 → 哪儿, in the place slot |
| 老师来了 (the teacher came) | 谁来了？(who came?) | 老师 → 谁, in the subject slot |
| 他明天来 (he comes tomorrow) | 他什么时候来？(when does he come?) | 明天 → 什么时候, in the time slot |
他买什么？
tā mǎi shénme
What is he buying? (informal) — 什么 sits in the object slot, right where 书 would go.
你去哪儿？
nǐ qù nǎr
Where are you going? (informal) — 哪儿 stays after the verb; there is no ❌哪儿你去.
你什么时候有空？
nǐ shénme shíhou yǒu kòng
When are you free? (informal) — 什么时候 occupies the time slot before the verb.
——你去哪儿？——我去邮局。
— nǐ qù nǎr? — wǒ qù yóujú
'Where are you going?' 'I'm going to the post office.' (informal) — the answer 邮局 fills the very slot 哪儿 held.
No 吗 with a question word
Because the question word by itself flags the sentence as a question, there is nothing left for 吗 to do — and adding it is flatly ungrammatical. 吗 casts a yes/no net over a whole proposition; a question word instead leaves a blank to be filled in. The two jobs are mutually exclusive, so a sentence has either a question word or 吗, never both.
你叫什么名字？
nǐ jiào shénme míngzi
What's your name? (neutral) — 什么 already asks; no 吗 anywhere.
这个多少钱？
zhège duōshao qián
How much is this? (informal) — the everyday shopping question; 多少 marks it, no 吗.
The core set of question words
Each of these stays in situ and heads its own page in this subgroup. Learn where each one's answer normally lives, and you know where the word goes.
| Word | Pinyin | Asks | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| 谁 | shéi | who / whom | 谁来了？ |
| 什么 | shénme | what | 你想吃什么？ |
| 哪 | nǎ | which | 你要哪个？ |
| 哪儿 / 哪里 | nǎr / nǎlǐ | where | 你在哪儿？ |
| 什么时候 | shénme shíhou | when | 你什么时候走？ |
| 几点 | jǐ diǎn | what time | 现在几点？ |
| 怎么 | zěnme | how | 我们怎么去？ |
| 为什么 | wèishénme | why | 你为什么不去？ |
| 怎么样 | zěnmeyàng | how is it / how about | 这个怎么样？ |
| 多少 / 几 | duōshao / jǐ | how many / how much | 你要几个？ |
| 多 | duō | how (+ adjective) | 你多大？ |
你为什么不去？
nǐ wèishénme bú qù
Why aren't you going? (informal) — 为什么 sits before the verb, where a reason-answer goes.
我们怎么去？
wǒmen zěnme qù
How do we get there? (informal) — 怎么 stays in place before the verb.
你觉得这家餐厅怎么样？
nǐ juéde zhè jiā cāntīng zěnmeyàng
What do you think of this restaurant? (informal) — 怎么样 sits at the end, the predicate slot.
Common Mistakes
1. Fronting the question word like English. Don't lift it to the sentence front; leave it in the answer's slot.
❌ 哪儿你去？
Incorrect — no fronting. The place word stays after the verb: 你去哪儿？
✅ 你去哪儿？
nǐ qù nǎr
Where are you going? (informal) — 哪儿 in place.
2. Moving an object question word before the verb. An object stays after its verb — even when it's a question word.
❌ 你什么吃？
Incorrect — the object comes after the verb: 你吃什么？
✅ 你吃什么？
nǐ chī shénme
What are you eating? (informal) — 什么 after 吃, the object slot.
3. Adding 吗 to a question-word question. The question word already asks; 吗 has nothing to poll.
❌ 他是谁吗？
Incorrect — 谁 already makes it a question; drop 吗: 他是谁？
✅ 他是谁？
tā shì shéi
Who is he? (informal) — question word, no 吗.
4. Inserting a copula 是 to mimic English 'who IS coming'. When there's a real verb, you don't need 是.
❌ 谁是来了？
Incorrect — 来 is the verb, so no 是: 谁来了？
✅ 谁来了？
shéi lái le
Who came? (informal) — the plain verb 来, no added copula.
Key Takeaways
- Chinese question words are in situ: the interrogative sits exactly where the answer will sit — no fronting, no do-support, no reordering.
- Form a wh-question by swapping the unknown slot for a question word and leaving everything else alone: 他买书 → 他买什么？
- To answer, drop the answer into the same slot — perfect mirror symmetry.
- Never add 吗 to a question-word question; the two are mutually exclusive.
- The core set — 谁, 什么, 哪, 哪儿, 什么时候, 几点, 怎么, 为什么, 怎么样, 多少/几, 多 — all obey this one rule; each has its own page.
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- 谁 (shéi): Who / WhomHSK 1 — 谁 (shéi, also read shuí) asks 'who' and, staying in place, works as subject (谁来了？), object (你找谁？), or possessor (谁的书？= whose book). No who/whom distinction, no fronting — as an object it stays after the verb.
- 什么 (shénme): What / What Kind OfHSK 1 — 什么 (shénme) is Mandarin's all-purpose 'what' — it stays in situ where the answer will go (你想吃什么？), and placed before a noun it means 'what kind of / which N' with no measure word (什么书, 什么颜色).
- 哪儿 / 哪里 (nǎr / nǎlǐ): WhereHSK 1 — 'Where' is 哪儿 (nǎr, northern/colloquial) or 哪里 (nǎlǐ, standard/southern) — interchangeable in meaning. Both stay in situ in the place slot after the verb or coverb (你去哪儿？在哪里？), never fronted English-style.
- Yes-No Questions with 吗 (ma)HSK 1 — The default way to ask a yes/no question: take a complete statement, change nothing, and add 吗 (ma) at the end. 你有时间吗? Answer by echoing the verb, not with a word for 'yes'.