Why in Chinese
why · HSK 2
为什么
- 为 for
- 什 what
- 么
Other ways to say why
More words with 为 or 什 or 么
How do you say why in Chinese?
Why in Chinese is 为什么 (wèi shén me). You can also say 为何 (wèi hé), 怎么 (zěn me), 所以 (suǒ yǐ).
Which word should I use?
Start with the first one: it is the easiest on the HSK list. The others say it too, often in a more formal way or for a narrower sense; each one’s page has real sentences that show how it is used.
Where do these words come from?
The CC-CEDICT dictionary’s meanings for the official HSK word list. A word is shown for an English word when that is one of its first meanings; the easiest word whose first meaning it is comes first.
More free tools
Greetings: hello, good morning and goodbye. Measure words: the classifier for any noun. Tone practice: say a word and see your tones. Read any Mandarin: point at a word for its meaning.
Meanings from CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Chinese often has more than one way to say a word.