Repeating question words are a really cool feature of Chinese grammar. Chinese
question words are pretty interesting in general, as they function very
logically and can be swapped in and out of sentences quite easily. One aspect of
this is that you can repeat question words and use them as ‘place-holders’ for
some sort of information.
I recently saw a little joke that demonstrates this
quite well, but let's have a look at it here from a more grammatical
perspective. This is a great feature of the language to know, as it makes you
much more flexible in forming sentences etc.
The way it works is pretty simple. You use a question word once, and then when
you use it again in the sentence, it refers back to the first one. Hence the
term “place-holder question words”. Here's an example:
你点
什么
我吃
什么
。
Nǐ diǎn shénme wǒ chī shénme.
I'll order whatever you eat.
That's a really common thing to say in restaurants - you're letting the other
person choose what to order and you'll eat whatever it is. Look how the sentence
works in Chinese - literally “you order what I eat what”. This is a really nice
feature to use because it's so elegant. You can express a lot of things this
way.
Repeating question words: a bit like programming
This kind of sentence is slightly like programming or maths. The repeated
question word is a bit like a variable - i__t holds one bit of
information consistently wherever you put it. Or, it's a bit like _x _in
an equation - “you order x I eat x".
Anyway, let's have look at some different question words being repeated as
place-holders. You'll see that Chinese question words are very versatile and
quite an elegant feature of the language.
谁 (shéi): whoever
You can very easily create sentences that would involve “whoever” in English by
repeating 谁. Some examples:
谁
有钱
谁
有权。
Shéi yǒu qián shéi yǒu quán.
Whoever has money has power.
美国想打
谁
就打
谁
。
Měiguó xiǎng dǎ shéi jiù dǎ shéi.
America attacks whoever it wants.
谁
要走
谁
就走。
Shéi yào zǒu shéi jiù zǒu.
Whoever wants to leave, leave.
Pretty cool, right? There's something very pleasing about those Chinese
sentences. They seem neat and efficient, and very easy to understand once you
know the repeating question words structure.
什么 (shénme): whatever
You can do the same thing with any question word you like. Let's have a look at
some example sentences for 什么:
你要买
什么
,那个商店有
什么
。
Nǐ yào mǎi shénme, nàgè shāngdiàn yǒu shénme.
Whatever you want to buy, that shop has it.
你有
什么
我买
什么
。
Nǐ yǒu shénme wǒ mǎi shénme.
I'll buy whatever you've got.
你要我做
什么
我就做
什么
!
Nǐ yào wǒ zuò shénme wǒ jiù zuò shénme!
I'll do whatever you want!
As you can see, you've just got to put in the relevant question word to hold the
place of whatever thing you want, and the sentence works.
哪儿 (nǎr): wherever
Moving on, you can talk about places in this way using 哪儿. Some examples:
你去
哪儿
我就去
哪儿
。
Nǐ qù nǎr wǒ jiù qù nǎr.
I'll go wherever you go.
哪儿
暖和咱们就去
哪儿
。
Nǎr nuǎnhuo zánmen jiù qù nǎr.
Let's go wherever is warm.
你在
哪儿
藏起来我们就会在
哪儿
找到你。
Nǐ zài nǎr cáng qǐlái wǒmen jiù huì zài nǎr zhǎodào nǐ.
We'll find you wherever you hide.
怎么 (zěnme): however
Finally, you can talk about actions in this way using 怎么. Some examples:
他
怎么
做饭
怎么
好吃。
Tā zěnme zuò fàn zěnme hào chī.
However he cooks, it's good.
老板
怎么
说,我们
怎么
做。
Lǎobǎn zěnme shuō, wǒmen zěnme zuò.
We'll do it however the boss says.
你想
怎么
做,我同意
怎么
做。
Nǐ xiǎng zěnme zuò, wǒ tóngyì zěnme zuò.
I'll agree to do it however you think.
Note that we've gone through a few question words here, but you can do this with
any question word in Chinese - there are loads more possibilities!