幹什麼

简 干什么 · 繁 幹什麼
Mandarin · pinyin gàn shén me

Meanings

  1. what are you doing?
  2. what's he up to?
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Characters in this entry

幹
Look up this written character
什
shén · file of ten soldiers; mixed, miscellaneous
麼
me · interrogative final particle; insignificant, small, tiny
干
gàn · oppose, offend; invade; dried
么
me · interrogative particle; small
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

4–2–5 · gan4 shen2 me5

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Read this spelling in Classical texts

Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

verb

  1. what to do

adv

  1. why; what for

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

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