🇨🇳Chinese Source WordCode: ZH

什么

Pronunciation / Transliteration: shénme

🇬🇧 Direct English Meaning:
What/wɒt/
pronounadverbCEFR A1 (Beginner)Top #100 frequency
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🇨🇳 Example Sentence in Chinese:

"你最喜欢的书是什么?"

Comprehensive Definitions & Senses

2 senses
As pronoun
  1. 1

    Used to ask for information about something.

    "What is your favorite book?"
As determiner
  1. 1

    Used to specify a particular thing or things.

    "What time is the meeting?"

Thesaurus & Semantic Spectrum

Synonyms (3)
Antonyms & Contrasting Words (1)

Linguistic Origin & Historical Etymology

The word 'what' originates from Old English 'hwæt', which is derived from Proto-Germanic '*hwaz', meaning 'who' or 'what'. Over time, its usage evolved to encompass a broader range of interrogative contexts in English.

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