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TheMandarinChinesephrasefor"when"is什么时候(shénmeshíhou).ThisisanimportantChinesephrasetoknowinordertoschedulemeetingsforbusinessorleisure.
Characters
Thefirsttwocharacters什么(shénme)mean"what.”Thelasttwocharacters时候(shíhou)mean“time,”or“lengthoftime.”
Puttogether,什么时候literallymeans"whattime."However,"when"isamorecorrecttranslationofthephrase.Ifyouwanttoask"whattimeisit?"youwouldusuallysay:现在几点了(xiànzàijǐdiǎnle)?
Pronunciation
Thephraseismadeupof4characters:什么时候.什ispronounced"shén,"whichisinthe2ndtone.Thepinyinfor么is"me,"whichisunaccentedandthushasnotone.Thepinyinfor时is"shí,"whichisinthe2ndtone.Finally,候ispronouncedas"hou".Thischaracterisalsounaccented.Thus,intermsoftones,什么时候canalsobewrittenasshen2meshi2hou.
SentenceExamples
你什么时候去北京?(nǐshénmeshíhouqùBěijīng)=WhenareyougoingtoBeijing?
他什么时候要来?(tāshénmeshíhouyàolái)=Whenishe
