谁 asks about a person — "who" or "whom" — and like every Chinese question word it obeys the in-situ rule: it sits wherever the answer would sit. That single principle covers all three of its roles — subject, object, and possessor — so there is no who/whom puzzle to solve and nothing to move to the front. English speakers get two gifts here: 谁 never changes shape for case, and it never gets fronted the way "whom" does. It has two standard pronunciations, shéi (the everyday one) and shuí (more formal and literary); they mean exactly the same thing.
| Role | Example | Where 谁 lands |
|---|---|---|
| Subject | 谁来了？(who came?) | front — the subject slot |
| Subject + 是 | 谁是老师？(who is the teacher?) | front, before 是 |
| Object | 你找谁？(whom are you looking for?) | after the verb |
| Object of a coverb | 你跟谁去？(who are you going with?) | after the coverb 跟 |
| Possessor | 谁的书？(whose book?) | 谁 + 的 |
Subject: 谁 up front
When you're asking who does something, 谁 is the subject — and since subjects come first in Chinese, that's where 谁 sits. It looks fronted, but it isn't moving anywhere; the subject slot simply happens to be at the front.
谁来了？
shéi lái le
Who's here? / Who came? (informal) — 谁 as subject, in the natural subject slot.
谁是你们的老师？
shéi shì nǐmen de lǎoshī
Who is your teacher? (neutral) — subject 谁 with the copula 是.
Object: 谁 stays after the verb
This is where English speakers slip. "Whom are you looking for?" fronts the object in English, but Chinese keeps the object after the verb, exactly where a noun object would go. So it's 你找谁 — literally "you seek who" — never ❌谁你找.
你找谁？
nǐ zhǎo shéi
Whom are you looking for? (informal) — 谁 stays after 找, the object slot.
你想见谁？
nǐ xiǎng jiàn shéi
Who do you want to see? (informal) — object 谁 after the verb 见, no fronting.
你想请谁帮忙？
nǐ xiǎng qǐng shéi bāngmáng
Who do you want to ask for help? (informal) — 谁 in place as the object of 请.
The same holds when 谁 is the object of a coverb (a preposition-like verb such as 跟 "with", 给 "to", 找 "for"): 谁 stays right after the coverb, not before it.
你刚才跟谁打电话？
nǐ gāngcái gēn shéi dǎ diànhuà
Who were you just on the phone with? (informal) — 谁 after the coverb 跟, in place.
Possessor: 谁的 = whose
"Whose" isn't a separate word — it's just 谁 plus the possessive particle 的. 谁的 attaches to a noun (谁的书 "whose book") or stands alone as a predicate (…是谁的？ "…is whose?"), following the ordinary possession-with-的 pattern.
这是谁的书？
zhè shì shéi de shū
Whose book is this? (informal) — 谁的 modifying 书.
那个包是谁的？
nàge bāo shì shéi de
Whose bag is that? (informal) — 谁的 standing alone as the predicate.
A note on 谁 as 'anyone / no one'
Outside of questions, 谁 can be an indefinite — "anyone / someone / no one" — especially in the frame 谁…都/也. This is a separate use (covered under rhetorical and indefinite uses); flag it now so you're not thrown when 谁 doesn't mean "who?"
这件事谁都不知道。
zhè jiàn shì shéi dōu bù zhīdào
Nobody knows about this. (informal) — 谁…都 here means 'no one', not 'who'.
谁知道呢？
shéi zhīdào ne
Who knows? (informal) — a rhetorical 谁 that expects no real answer.
Common Mistakes
1. Fronting object 谁 like English 'whom'. Keep it after the verb.
❌ 谁你找？
Incorrect — the object stays after the verb: 你找谁？
✅ 你找谁？
nǐ zhǎo shéi
Whom are you looking for? (informal) — 谁 in the object slot.
2. Adding 吗. 谁 already makes the sentence a question; 吗 is ungrammatical here.
❌ 你找谁吗？
Incorrect — 谁 already asks; drop 吗: 你找谁？
✅ 你找谁？
nǐ zhǎo shéi
Whom are you looking for? (informal) — question word, no 吗.
3. Dropping 的 in 'whose'. "Whose" needs the possessive 的 — 谁的, not bare 谁.
❌ 这是谁书？
Incorrect — 'whose' needs 的: 这是谁的书？
✅ 这是谁的书？
zhè shì shéi de shū
Whose book is this? (informal) — 谁 + 的 for possession.
4. Putting 谁 before the coverb. As the object of 跟 / 给, 谁 stays after it, not ahead of it.
❌ 你谁跟打电话？
Incorrect — 谁 is the object of 跟, so it follows it: 你跟谁打电话？
✅ 你跟谁打电话？
nǐ gēn shéi dǎ diànhuà
Who are you calling? (informal) — 谁 after the coverb 跟.
Key Takeaways
- 谁 (shéi / shuí) asks "who / whom" and stays in situ: subject up front (谁来了？), object after the verb (你找谁？).
- There is no who/whom case and no fronting — as an object, 谁 keeps its slot after the verb or coverb.
- 谁的 = "whose": just 谁 + the possessive 的.
- shéi dominates speech; shuí is more formal/literary — same meaning either way.
- Never add 吗 to a 谁 question, and watch for 谁 in its separate indefinite sense ("anyone / no one") in the 谁…都 frame.
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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.
- 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).
- Rhetorical Questions (难道, 何必, 谁知道)HSK 3 — A rhetorical question wears the shape of a question but delivers a statement — and asserts the opposite of what it literally asks: 难道…吗 (surely not?), 何必…呢 (why bother), 谁知道 (who knows = nobody). The pragmatic force is emphasis, reproach, or persuasion, not a request for information.
- Possession with 的HSK 1 — Chinese builds possession with one particle, 的 (de), always in the order possessor-的-possessed: 我的书 (wǒ de shū, 'my book'), 老师的车 (lǎoshī de chē, 'the teacher's car'), 中国的历史 (Zhōngguó de lìshǐ, 'China's history') — the single 的 covers both the English possessive 's and the word 'of', and it also turns a bare pronoun into 'mine / yours / hers' (这是我的, 'this is mine').