Asking "Why"

drhu
 May 11, 2010, 01:34 AM posted in General Discussion

Helen,

When you ask the question "Why" in Chinese, it seems that it is ok to say, for example:  你为什么学中文.  If you just simply wanted to ask "Why?" do you still use 为什么.  For example, if someone says:  A:  你应该学中文   And another person responds B: 为什么？ I seem to remember reading somewhere that there is a slightly different way to ask "Why" in this context.  Is this true?

Mike

 

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helencao_counselor
 May 11, 2010, 09:44 PM

Mike,

你为什么学中文 refers to one is asking another the reason why he or she is learning Chinese. 但是 in the sencond example you mentioned above, it refers to B is asking A the reason "why should B learning Chinese?".

Another way to ask "why" is to use "怎么。。。了呢"？

For example, if someone says:

A: 我有世博会的门票，但是我不想去了。

B：你怎么不想去了呢？

 

Hope that makes sense.

Talk soon,

Helen