"他们是谁?"
Translation:Who are they?
November 26, 2017
20 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
This discussion is locked.
ingochris
596
Man, I'm having trouble getting used to the ordering in Chinese, I keep ordering it like English instead of "他们是谁?", or "They are who?"
ingochris
I looked into this and the original pronunciation ie shui2 but many dialects of Mandarin say shei2 (https://www.quora.com/The-Mandarin-word-%E8%B0%81-%E8%AA%B0-seems-to-have-two-different-pronunciations-shei-or-shui-Is-there-a-particular-pronunciation-that-is-correct-or-are-they-used-in-different-contexts)
GryTea
227
吗 is for yes-no questions. If you add it in this case, it'd be 他们是谁吗?, meaning "Are they anybody?" or "Are they somebody?" (literal translations). This can be rude because it can sound like they're nobodies.