About
The character for "who", now written as "谁", traces its origins to the traditional form "誰", a compound that integrates the speech radical "言" with the component "隹", which primarily served a phonetic function. This construction places it within the category of Chinese characters that combine semantic and phonetic elements, with the speech radical hinting at its verbal and interrogative nature. While its fundamental meaning as an interrogative pronoun has remained consistent throughout history, classical texts occasionally employed it in rhetorical or indefinite contexts, a breadth of usage that has narrowed in modern times to focus more squarely on direct inquiry. The graphic form has seen adjustments, notably in the simplification of the speech radical, yet these changes have preserved the core structural relationship between its components.
Etymology Hide
Example Sentences Hide
这是谁的书？
谁想去公园玩？
刚才谁给你打电话了？
这件事到底是谁做的？
谁知道明天会不会下雨呢？
不管是谁，都要遵守规则。
你猜我在街上遇到谁了？
谁也无法预料未来的事情。