About
Who is a phono-semantic compound. Its traditional form, 誰, combines the speech radical 讠 on the left, a reduction of 言, which signals a connection to speech or questioning. The right side, 隹 (a short-tailed bird), provides the pronunciation with no semantic contribution. Historically, it functions solely as an interrogative pronoun meaning "who" or "whom", asking about a person's identity. It also appears in rhetorical questions to emphasize that no one has a certain quality or can perform a particular action.
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。