In my post about interrogative words I was noted that the word order with 为什么 might be off. The example's were from my class notes yet after a little looking into it I found out that indeed, it wasn't right. Probably due to writing notes in a hurry.
The original examples were:
他以前不告诉为什么? (Tā yīqiān bù gāosù wěishénme?)
你学习汉语为什么? (Nǐ xuéxí Hànyǔ wéishénme?)
Understandable questions but in my mind they now sound like "You study Chinese? Why?!" or "He didn't tell me earlier! Why?!".
I've corrected them now to:
他以前为什么不告诉 (Tā yīqiān wěishénme bù gāosù?) Why didn't he tell me earlier?
你为什么学习汉语 (Nǐ wéishénme xuéxí Hànyǔ?) Why do you study Chinese?
In Chinese, the question word is added in the place of the word you are asking about where as in English they are placed at the beginning of the sentence. 吗 (ma) and 干什么 (gàn shénme) are exceptions, you just add them at the end of your phrase to make it a question. Here's an example from each question word where I've 2) bolded the question word, and 1) an answer to the question where I've bolded the part that was asked about:
是，我是中国人 (Wǒ shì Zhōngguórén) Yes, I am Chinese.
你是中国人吗? (Nǐ shì Zhōngguórén ma?) Are you Chinese?
他是ANDY (Tā shì ANDY) He is Andy.
他是谁? (Tā shì shéi?) Who is he?
我叫珍妮(JENNY) (Wǒ jiào Zhēnnī) My name is Jenny*
你叫什么名字? (Nǐ jiào shénme míngzi?) What is your name?
* Notice! 名字 (míngzi) is omitted from the answer in this case. Another way of asking this is:
我的名字是珍妮(JENNY) (Wǒ de míngzì shì Zhēnnī) My name is Jenny
你的名字是什么? (Nǐ de míngzì shì shénme?) What is your name?
因为我爷爷是中国人 (Yīnwěi wǒ yéye shì Zhōngguórén) Because my grandfather is chinese.
你为什么学习汉语? (Nǐ wěishénme xuéxí Hànyǔ ?) Why do you study Chinese?
This is a little trickier because it seems we are not removing anything for the question word like we did in the previous example. Let's take a look at it from another perspective:
我爷爷是中国人, 这就是为什么我学习汉语 (Wǒ yéye shì Zhōngguórén, zhè jiùshì wèishénme wǒ xuéxí Hànyǔ) My grandfather is chinese which is why I study it.
你为什么学习汉语? (Nǐ wěishénme xuéxí Hànyǔ?) Why do you study Chinese?
From this sentence we can understand the question structure because we can remove the answer, 爷爷是中国人 (yéye shì Zhōngguórén) and replace it with 为什么(wěishénme)
我跳 (Wǒ tiào) I'm jumping.
你干什么? (Nǐ gàn shénme?) What are you doing?
When accompanied with other verbs, 干什么 means also why but it is different from 为什么. It questions the action you are currently doing and is more concrete than 为什么,
我看这些地图 (Wǒ kàn zhèxiē dìtú) I'm looking at these maps.
你看那些地图干什么 (Nǐ kàn nàxiē dìtú gànshénme?) Why are you looking at those maps?
我要找到中国 (Wǒ yáo zhǎodào Zhōngguó) I want to find China.
我九月一日以前回来 (Wǒ jiǔ yuè yī rì yǐqián huílái) I will return before September.
你什么时候回来 (Nǐ shénme shíhou huílai?) When will you be back?
正确写这些汉字 (Zhèngquè xiě zhèxiē hànzì) Write these characters properly.
怎么写 这些汉字? (Zěnme xiě zhèxiē hànzì?) How to write these characters?
他倒下了 (Tā dàoxià le) He fell down.
怎么啦? (zěnmela?) What happened?
啦 (la) and 了(le) both indicate something that just happened, a change in a situation.
大学很大，很漂亮 (Dàxué hěn dà, hén piáoliang) The university is very big and beautiful.
大学怎么样? (Dàxué zěnmeyàng?) What is the university like?
这/那个我最喜欢 (zhè/nàgè wǒ zuì xǐhuan) This/that one is my favourite
哪个你最喜欢? (nǎgè nǐ zuì xǐhuan?) Which one is your favourite?
学院在这儿/那儿 (Xuéyuàn zài zhèr/nàr) School is over here/there.
学院在哪儿? (Xuéyuàn zài nǎr?) Where’s the school located?
我学校有大概三万学生 (Wǒ xuéxiào yǒu dàgài sān wàn xuésheng) My school has about 30 000 students.
你学校有多少学生? (Nǐ xuéxiào yǒu duóshao xuésheng?) How many students are there in your school?
今天八月二号 (Jīntiān bā yuè èr hào) Today is 2nd of August
今天几号? (Jīntiān jǐ hào?) What date is it today?
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