幹嗎

See also: 干吗

Chinese

Etymology 1

 
main part of something; to manage; to work; to do; capable; tree trunk; to kill (slang)
(question tag); morphine
trad. (幹嗎)
simp. (干吗)
variant forms 幹嘛干嘛
幹麼干么

(“to do”) + (“(dialectal Mandarin, e.g. Tianjin) what”). Colloquial; the formal equivalent in Standard Mandarin is 什麼 or 什麼.

The second element is cognate with (me) in Standard Mandarin 什麼什么 (shénme, “what”), and is usually written as when writing Tianjin dialect. Dictionaries only consider consider toneless ma (declarative particle) as the only proper use of . All other senses, including the dialectally influenced pronunciation of ("what") and the interrogative particle of ma, are considered incorrect. However, there is much confusion in actual writing, possibly with 幹嘛 being used more commonly for this sense.

Pronunciation


Verb

幹嗎

  1. (colloquial) what is (someone) doing; what is going on
    現在幹嗎 / 现在干吗   Nǐ xiànzài gànmá ne?   What are you doing now?
  2. (colloquial) what is wrong; what is up
    幹嗎 / 干吗   gànmá ya?   What's up with you?

Adverb

幹嗎

  1. (colloquial) why; why on earth; whatever for
    幹嗎折磨自己 [MSC, trad.]
    干吗折磨自己 [MSC, simp.]
    gànmá zhémó zìjǐ a! [Pinyin]
    Why are you torturing yourself?

Etymology 2

 
main part of something; to manage; to work; to do; capable; tree trunk; to kill (slang)
(question tag); morphine
trad. (幹嗎)
simp. (干吗)
variant forms 幹麼干么

Pronunciation


Verb

幹嗎

  1. (“to do”) + (“question particle”)
    幹嗎 / 干吗   Zhè shì nǐ gàn ma?   Will you do this?
  2. (vulgar) (“to fuck”) + (“question particle”)
  3. Alternative form of 幹嘛 (“to do + declarative particle”).
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