About
The character "啥" serves as a colloquial interrogative pronoun meaning "what" in modern Mandarin, and its formation follows the phonetic loan principle common in Chinese character creation. Structurally, it combines the semantic radical "口", which indicates a relation to speech or utterance, with the component "舍" on the right, functioning primarily as a phonetic element that historically approximated the sound of "什" from the phrase "什么". Etymologically, "啥" emerged from dialectal contractions of "什么" in Northern Chinese varieties, and it gradually entered written vernacular usage, where it has consistently retained its core function as an informal question word.
Example Sentences Hide
你在看啥书？
他今天吃啥了？
你为啥不来啊？
我们明天去干啥？
你知道他说啥了吗？
不管啥问题，都要解决。
你啥时候有空，我们就见面。
我真不知道他啥时候回来。