Asking Who With Shéi

You will use shéi to ask “who is a person” or “who is that person”. We also place shéi in a sentence where we normally put “person” or in most cases, a subject, and it will turn into a question.

shéi + verb ？/ subj + verb + shéi？

Shéi bù míngbái？——> Who not understand? (Who doesn’t understand?) 谁不明白？

A: Shéi shì wǒmen de zhōngwén lǎoshī？——> Who is our Chinese teacher? 谁是我们的中文老师？ B: Amy shì wǒmen de zhōngwén lǎoshī. ——> Amy is our Chinese teacher. Amy是我们的老师。 A: Nǐ xǐhuān shéi？ ——> You like who? (who do you like?) 你喜欢谁？ B: Wǒ xǐhuan Qiáodān. ——> I like Qiáodān. 我喜欢乔丹。

Subj. + time word + zài / qù + location + action

A: Shéi míngtiān qù xuéxiào xué zhōngwén？——>Who tomorrow go to school to learn Chinese？→ Who will go to school to learn Chinese tomorrow？ 谁明天去学校学中文？ B: Wǒ dìdi míngtiān qù xuéxiào xué zhōngwén. ——> My little brother tomorrow will go to school to learn Chinese. → My little brother will go to school to learn Chinese tomorrow. 我弟弟明天去学校学中文。

Note that the time word can be at the very front of the sentence as well. For example, Míngtiān shéi qù kàndiànyǐng？Míngtiān Bèilā qù kàndiànyǐng.