何

See also: 伺, 向, 同, and 回

Translingual

Stroke order

Etymology

Phono-semantic compound (形聲): semantic 人 + phonetic 可

Han character

何 (radical 9 人+5, 7 strokes, cangjie input 人一弓口 (OMNR), four-corner 2122₀, composition ⿰亻可)

1. what, why, where, which, how
2. a surname

References

• KangXi: page 98, character 15
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 511
• Dae Jaweon: page 208, character 5
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 1, page 130, character 4
• Unihan data for U+4F55

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Cantonese

Hanzi

何 (Jyutping ho4, ho6, Yale ho4, ho6)

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Japanese

Kanji

何

(grade 2 “Kyōiku” kanji)

1. what

Readings

• Goon: が (ga) (non-Jōyō reading)
• Kan’on: か (ka)
• Kun: なに (nani), なん (nan), いず (izu), あが (aga)

Compounds

• 如何, 奈何
• 幾何
• 誰何
• 何々, 何何
• 何事
• 何卒
• 何共
• 何人
• 何等
• 何程
• 何箇
• 何回
• 何故
• 何歳, 何才
• 何時
• 何者
• 何処
• 何条
• 何色搨
• 何点
• 何度
• 何奴
• 何物
• 何分
• 何遍
• 何某
• 何様

Interjection

何 (hiragana なに, romaji nani)

1. What?, Huh?

Pronoun

何 (hiragana なに, romaji nani)

何 (hiragana なん, romaji nan)

1. what
   • 794: Shin'yaku Kegonkyō Ongi Shiki (page 92)

     汝何所爲 奈尓世牟止曽

2. that thing (used in place of words you can't remember at the moment.)

Derived terms

• 何か
• 何も
• 何かしら
• 何しろ
• 何せ
• 何たる

See also

• 何れ (どれ, dore) which one?
• どの (どの, dono) (of) what?
• 何処 (どこ, doko) where?
• 何方 (どちら, dochira) which way?
• 如何 (どう, dō) in what manner?

References

• Yoshinori Kobayashi, Kojisho Ongi Shūsei 1: Shin'yaku Kegonkyō Ongi Shiki (in Japanese), Kyūko Shoin (published 1978; original text from 794), ISBN 4-7629-3088-1.

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Korean

Hanja

何 (ha) (hangeul 하, revised ha, McCune-Reischauer ha)

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Mandarin

Hanzi

何 (Pinyin hé (he2), Wade-Giles ho²)

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Min Nan

Hanzi

何

Descendants

• (Hokkien dialect) Tagalog: Ho

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Vietnamese

Han character

何 (hà, gã)

References

• Nom Foundation