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Definition 2024

什麼

什麼

See also: 什麽, 甚麼, 甚麽, and 什么

Chinese

tenth (used in fractions) dimi.
trad. (什麼/甚麼/什麽/甚麽) 什/甚 麼/麽
simp. (什么) 什 么

Pronoun

什麼

  1. (interrogative) what
    這是什麼？ / 这是什么？  ―  Zhè shì shénme?  ―  What is this?
    你平時喜歡做什麼？ [MSC, trad.]
    你平时喜欢做什么？ [MSC, simp.]
    Nǐ píngshí xǐhuān zuò shénme? [Pinyin]
    What do you like doing in your spare time?
  2. something; anything; whatever
    你想吃點什麼嗎？ / 你想吃点什么吗？  ―  Nǐ xiǎng chī diǎn shénme ma?  ―  Would you like something to eat?
    我什麼都不知道。 / 我什么都不知道。  ―  Wǒ shénme dōu bù zhīdào.  ―  I don't know anything
    我什麼也不怕。 / 我什么也不怕。  ―  Wǒ shénme yě bù pà.  ―  I'm not afraid of anything.
  3. (when used two time in a sentence) whatever
    他可以想做什麼就做什麼。 [MSC, trad.]
    他可以想做什么就做什么。 [MSC, simp.]
    Tā kěyǐ xiǎng zuò shénme jiù zuò shénme. [Pinyin]
    He can do whatever he wants.
  4. (used to express surprise or anger) what
    幹的是什麼事兒！ / 干的是什么事儿！  ―  Gàn de shì shénme shìr!  ―  What a thing to do!
  5. (used before an enumeration) thing like; such as; and so on; and what not
  6. (used to express disapproval, disagreement)

Synonyms

Dialectal synonyms of 什麼 (“what”)
Variety Location Words
Classical Chinese 何
Formal (Written Standard Chinese) 什麼
Mandarin Beijing 什麼
Taiwan 什麼
Tianjin 嘛
Harbin 啥
Shenyang 什麼、啥
Jinan 麼兒、麼、什麼
Muping 麼、麼個
Luoyang 啥
Wanrong 色
Xi'an 啥
Xining 啥
Xuzhou 啥、啥子
Yinchuan 啥
Ürümqi 啥
Wuhan 麼事
Chengdu 啥、啥子
Guiyang 哪樣
Liuzhou 什嗎
Kunming 什麼
Nanjing 什麼
Hefei 哄個
Nantong 甚呢
Cantonese Guangzhou 乜、乜嘢、乜嘢嘢、咩、咩嘢
Hong Kong 乜、乜嘢、乜嘢嘢、咩、咩嘢
Dongguan 乜、乜嘢
Taishan 乜
Yangjiang 乜、乜嘢
Gan Nanchang 什哩
Lichuan 什仔
Pingxiang 咋個
Hakka Meixian 麼個
Xingning 麼個
Huidong (Huizhou) 麼個
Qujiang 麼個
Xiaosanjiang 麼個
Changting 麼個
Pingyu 麼個
Wuping 麼個
Liancheng 麼個
Yudu 子個
Ruijin 咩、唔幾
Shicheng 什麼
Shangyou 哪項、口哪
Miaoli (N. Sixian) 麼個
Liudui (S. Sixian) 麼個
Hsinchu (Hailu) 麼個
Dongshi (Dabu) 麼個
Zhuolan (Raoping) 麼個
Yunlin (Zhao'an) 麼個
Hui Jixi 麼仂
Jin Taiyuan 甚
Xinzhou 甚
Min Bei Jian'ou 孰事、孰麼
Min Dong Fuzhou 什乇
Min Nan Quanzhou 什物、啥物
Xiamen 什物、啥物、啥貨
Zhangzhou 什物、啥物、啥貨
Taipei 啥貨、啥物、啥
Kaohsiung 啥、啥貨、啥物
Tainan 啥物、啥貨
Taichung 啥
Yilan 啥貨
Lukang 啥物、啥貨
Sanxia 啥
Kinmen 啥貨、物代
Magong 啥貨、物代
Hsinchu 啥
Malaysia 啥物
Chaozhou 乜個、乜
Haikou 乜、個乜
Leizhou 乜
Pinghua Nanning 門、哪門
Wu Shanghai 啥、啥個
Suzhou 啥
Hangzhou 啥
Wenzhou 何呢
Chongming 何
Danyang 點高
Jinhua 待、淡
Ningbo 啥
Xiang Changsha 麼子
Shuangfeng 麼子
Loudi 麼子

Derived terms

Japanese

Kanji in this term
什 麼
いん
Hyōgaiji 		も
Hyōgaiji
Irregular

Etymology

From spoken Middle Chinese 恁麼 ‎(nyimX muɑ, “what?”, archaic, literally “think + something tiny and insignificant”).[1] The spelling shifted to include the Chinese synonym 什麼 (modern Mandarin reading of shénme), while keeping the inmo reading for 恁麼, instead of the expected shūma reading for 什麼.

Imported into Japanese by Zen monks who had studied in China.[1] Generally restricted to use by Zen practitioners.[2]

Pronunciation

  • (Irregular reading)
  • IPA(key): [ĩmmo̞]

Alternative forms

  • 恁麼

Pronoun

什麼 ‎(hiragana いんも, romaji inmo)

  1. (rare) what

Usage notes

Generally followed by the possessive particle の ‎(no) and used as an adnominal, with a meaning of what kind of.

References

  1. 1 2 1988, 国語大辞典（新装版） (Kokugo Dai Jiten, Revised Edition) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan
  2. ↑ 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, ISBN 4-385-13905-9

Pronunciation

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