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How to pronounce 什么

Its characters sit above it. Words that use it sit below. Select one to go there.

shén什me么what?; something

How to pronounce

in Mandarin Chinese

shén什me么

what?; something

HSK 1

Synthesized Mandarin audio · Vivian voice

shénSecond tonemeNeutral tone

Hear it in conversation

小高姐的 Magic IngredientsWatch on YouTube ↗

Any kind of tomatoes is OK.

Select a word for its meaning.

See it in a sentence.

？

What do you drink?

？

What do you want to buy?

？

What is your name?

Hear the difference

A syllable has a shape.

Tone marks show how pitch changes. Colors help you follow each syllable in the app.

ā First toneHigh and level
á Second toneRising
ǎ Third toneLow, then rising in isolation
à Fourth toneFalling
a Neutral toneShort and light

These are dictionary tones. In natural speech, tones can change with context. A third tone often stays low before another syllable.

Dictionary and example sources

Definitions adapt CC-CEDICT through HSK 3.0, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Definitions are shortened for study.

Examples include Lock In original sentences and the Tatoeba Project, under CC BY 2.0 France. Chinese text is normalized to simplified characters. Pinyin follows the study dictionary.