Asking "What Kind Of...": Introduction to 什么 (shénme)

1. The 什么 + Noun Structure

The grammatical logic you learned in the previous lesson continues to apply. The key difference is that instead of 什么 replacing the entire object, it now acts as a modifier for a noun that follows it.

This structure allows you to ask about a specific item within a known category.

Let's look at an example. You know the question:

• 这是什么？ (Zhè shì shénme?) - What is this?

Now, let's imagine you know the object is a book, but you don't know which book it is. You would use the 什么 + Noun pattern. For this, we'll need a new character:

• 书 (shū): book

The question becomes:

• 这是什么书？ (Zhè shì shénme shū?) - What book is this? (Literally: This is what book?)

Here, 什么 specifies the unknown aspect of the known category 书.

To see this pattern used with a different verb, we'll introduce another very common word:

• 喜欢 (xǐhuān): to like

As you can see, the structure is consistent:

你 喜欢 什么 书？ (Nǐ xǐhuān shénme shū?)
Subject + Verb + "What" + Noun?

2. Practice: Building Your Own Question

Let's practice forming a question with characters you already know. Using the pattern Subject + Verb + 什么 + Noun?, how would you ask:

"What kind of person is he?"

Think about the characters for "he" (他), "to be" (是), and "person" (人).

...

The correct structure would be "He is what person?":

他是什么人？ (Tā shì shénme rén?)

This is a common question that can be used to ask about someone's character, profession, or identity.

3. A More Specific Form: 什么样的 (shénme yàng de)

While 什么 + Noun is perfectly correct, if you explicitly want to ask "what kind of..." or "what type of...", there is a more precise phrase you can use. This involves adding the character 样 (yàng), which means "type" or "appearance," and the particle 的 (de).

The structure is: 什么样的 (shénme yàng de) + Noun

Let's explore this with an excellent resource that includes native audio pronunciation, which I know you value.

So, to ask "What kind of person do you like?", you could say:

你喜欢什么样的人？ (Nǐ xǐhuān shénmeyàng de rén?)

This structure is extremely useful when asking about preferences, which is a common topic in conversation.

4. How to Answer These Questions

Now that you can ask these specific questions, how do you answer them? The "quote and replace" method you've seen before is the key. You simply replace the 什么 (+ Noun) part of the question with your specific information.

Let's watch a video that reviews this answering technique.

Applying this method:

• Question: 你喜欢什么书？ (Nǐ xǐhuān shénme shū?) - What books do you like?
• Answer: 我喜欢中国书。 (Wǒ xǐhuān Zhōngguó shū.) - I like Chinese books.

You simply replace 什么 with 中国 (Zhōngguó), keeping the rest of the sentence structure intact.

Conclusion

Excellent work. You've now expanded your questioning ability from general "what" questions to specific "what kind of" questions. This is a powerful tool for gathering more detailed information.

Key Takeaways:

• The 什么 + Noun Pattern: To ask "what [noun]...?", you use the structure: Subject + Verb + 什么 + Noun? (e.g., 这是什么书？).
• "What Kind Of...": For more explicit questions about type or category, you can use the structure 什么样的 + Noun (e.g., 你喜欢什么样的人？).
• Answering Strategy: To answer these questions, you use the "quote and replace" method, swapping the 什么 placeholder with the specific information.

Preview of the Next Lesson:

In our next lesson, we will put everything from the last few lessons together. The goal will be to answer simple yes/no and 'what' questions using the vocabulary you have learned so far. This will be a great opportunity to consolidate your knowledge and practice your conversational skills.