怎

See also: 咋

怎 U+600E, 怎 CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-600E ← 怍 [U+600D] CJK Unified Ideographs 怏 → [U+600F]

Translingual

Stroke order

Han character

怎 (Kangxi radical 61, 心+5, 9 strokes, cangjie input 竹尸心 (HSP), four-corner 8033₁, composition ⿱乍心)

Derived characters

• 𠷿

References

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 379, character 17
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 10431
• Dae Jaweon: page 708, character 1
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 4, page 2280, character 10
• Unihan data for U+600E

Chinese

simp. and trad.		怎

Glyph origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲／形声) : phonetic 乍 (OC *zraːɡs) + semantic 心 (“heart”).

Etymology

First attested in the word 怎生 [10th c.] (Yuan et al., 1996).

Contraction of 作 (MC tsak) + some variant of 物 (MC mjut, “thing; what”), literally “to do what” (Norman, 1988). This is evidenced in forms found in the Tang and Song dynasties (Yuan et al., 1996): 作勿生 (MC tsak mjut sraeng) [8th c.], 作沒生 (MC tsak mwot sraeng) [8th c.], 作摩 (MC tsak ma) [10th c.], 作麼 (MC tsak maX) [10th c.].

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): zěn (zen³)

  (Zhuyin): ㄗㄣˇ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): zam² / zaam² / dim²
• Eastern Min (BUC): ciōng / cīng
• Southern Min

  (Hokkien, POJ): chóaⁿ / chài / cháiⁿ / chá / chóa / chái / chím / chérm

  (Teochew, Peng'im): za²

• Wu (Shanghai, Wugniu): ⁵tsen

---

• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Hanyu Pinyin: zěn
    • Zhuyin: ㄗㄣˇ
    • Tongyong Pinyin: zěn
    • Wade–Giles: tsên³
    • Yale: dzěn
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: tzeen
    • Palladius: цзэнь (czɛnʹ)
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /t͡sən²¹⁴/
• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)
    • Jyutping: zam² / zaam² / dim²
    • Yale: jám / jáam / dím
    • Cantonese Pinyin: dzam² / dzaam² / dim²
    • Guangdong Romanization: zem² / zam² / dim²
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /t͡sɐm³⁵/, /t͡saːm³⁵/, /tiːm³⁵/

Note:

• zam2 - literary;
• zaam2 - literary (rare);
• dim2 - vernacular (most likely unrelated), more commonly written as 點.

• Eastern Min
  • (Fuzhou)
    • Bàng-uâ-cê: ciōng / cīng
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /t͡suoŋ³³/, /t͡siŋ³³/

Note:

• ciōng - vernacular (also written as 蔣);
• cīng - literary.

• Southern Min
  • (Hokkien: Xiamen, Zhangzhou, General Taiwanese)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: chóaⁿ
    • Tâi-lô: tsuánn
    • Phofsit Daibuun: zvoar
    • IPA (Kaohsiung): /t͡suã⁴¹/
    • IPA (Xiamen, Zhangzhou, Taipei): /t͡suã⁵³/
  • (Hokkien: Quanzhou)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: chài
    • Tâi-lô: tsài
    • Phofsit Daibuun: zaix
    • IPA (Quanzhou): /t͡sai⁴¹/
  • (Hokkien: Xiamen, variant in Taiwan)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: cháiⁿ
    • Tâi-lô: tsáinn
    • Phofsit Daibuun: zvae
    • IPA (Kaohsiung): /t͡sãi⁴¹/
    • IPA (Xiamen, Taipei): /t͡sãi⁵³/
  • (Hokkien: variant in Taiwan)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: chá
    • Tâi-lô: tsá
    • Phofsit Daibuun: zar
    • IPA (Taipei): /t͡sa⁵³/
    • IPA (Kaohsiung): /t͡sa⁴¹/
  • (Hokkien: variant in Taiwan)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: chóa
    • Tâi-lô: tsuá
    • Phofsit Daibuun: zoar
    • IPA (Kaohsiung): /t͡sua⁴¹/
    • IPA (Taipei): /t͡sua⁵³/
  • (Hokkien: variant in Taiwan)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: chái
    • Tâi-lô: tsái
    • Phofsit Daibuun: zae
    • IPA (Kaohsiung): /t͡sai⁴¹/
    • IPA (Taipei): /t͡sai⁵³/
  • (Hokkien: Xiamen, Zhangzhou, General Taiwanese)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: chím
    • Tâi-lô: tsím
    • Phofsit Daibuun: ciem
    • IPA (Kaohsiung): /t͡sim⁴¹/
    • IPA (Xiamen, Zhangzhou, Taipei): /t͡sim⁵³/
  • (Hokkien: Quanzhou)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: chérm
    • Tâi-lô: tsérm
    • IPA (Quanzhou): /t͡səm⁵⁵⁴/

Note:

• chóaⁿ/chài/cháiⁿ/chá/chóa/chái - vernacular;
• chím/chérm - literary.

• (Teochew)
  • Peng'im: za²
  • Pe̍h-ōe-jī-like: tsá
  • Sinological IPA ^(key): /t͡sa⁵²/
• Wu
  • (Northern: Shanghai)
    • Wugniu: ⁵tsen
    • MiniDict: tsen^去
    • Wiktionary Romanisation (Shanghai): ²tsen
    • Sinological IPA (Shanghai): /t͡sən³⁴/

Definitions

怎

1. how; why
2. what

Synonyms

Dialectal synonyms of 怎麼 (“how”) [map]

Variety	Location	Words edit
Classical Chinese		何, 如何
Formal (Written Standard Chinese)		怎麼
Northeastern Mandarin	Beijing	怎麼
	Taiwan	怎麼
	Singapore	怎麼
Jilu Mandarin	Jinan	怎麼
Central Plains Mandarin	Xi'an	咋, 咋樣兒
	Sokuluk (Gansu Dungan)	咋, 咋的個, 咋麼, 咋麼個
Southwestern Mandarin	Chengdu	咋, 咋個, 啷個
	Chongqing	啷個
	Wuhan	麼, 麼樣, 哪樣
Jianghuai Mandarin	Yangzhou	井幹
	Hefei	怎樣, 怎
Cantonese	Guangzhou	點, 點樣
	Hong Kong	點, 點樣
	Taishan	幾何
	Kuala Lumpur (Guangfu)	點
	Singapore (Guangfu)	點
Gan	Nanchang	啷, 啷樣
Hakka	Meixian	仰般, 仰仔
	Wuhua (Meilin)	仰般
	Heyuan (Bendihua)	仰來
	Miaoli (N. Sixian)	仰般, 仰仔
	Pingtung (Neipu; S. Sixian)	仰仔
	Hsinchu County (Zhudong; Hailu)	仰般
	Taichung (Dongshi; Dabu)	仰脣, 仰
	Hsinchu County (Qionglin; Raoping)	仰般, 仰般形
	Yunlin (Lunbei; Zhao'an)	仰子
Huizhou	Jixi	采翹
Jin	Taiyuan	咋, 咋底
Eastern Min	Fuzhou	怎怎, 怎, 怎其
	Fuqing	安難, 怎生
	Singapore (Fuqing)	安難
Southern Min	Xiamen	按怎, 怎影
	Taipei	按怎
	Penang (Hokkien)	按怎
	Singapore (Hokkien)	按怎
	Manila (Hokkien)	障仔, 按怎, 怎
	Chaozhou	在生, 乜生, 做呢, 做物
	Raoping	做呢
	Shantou	做呢
	Jieyang	做呢
	Haifeng	做呢
	Singapore (Teochew)	做呢, 做物
	Batam (Teochew)	做呢物, 做物
	Wenchang	怎作, 作乜
	Haikou	咋作
	Singapore (Hainanese)	怎作
Wu	Shanghai	哪能
	Suzhou	捺亨
	Ningbo	咋, 咋貌, 咋貌介
	Wenzhou	訾那, 訾那能
Xiang	Changsha	何什, 何裡
	Shuangfeng	麼家

Compounds

• 不怎麼樣／不怎么样 (bùzěnmeyàng)
• 不毬的怎／不球的怎
• 不知怎的
• 多怎
• 怎不
• 怎價／怎价
• 怎向
• 怎地 (zěnde)
• 怎奈
• 怎奈向
• 怎好
• 怎得
• 怎敢
• 怎樣／怎样 (zěnyàng)
• 怎樣着
• 怎生 (zěnshēng)
• 怎生向
• 怎當／怎当
• 怎當得／怎当得
• 怎的
• 怎知 (zěnzhī)
• 怎見得／怎见得
• 怎許／怎许
• 怎說／怎说
• 怎麼／怎么
• 怎麼得了／怎么得了 (zěnme déliǎo)
• 怎麼搞的／怎么搞的
• 怎麼會／怎么会
• 怎麼樣／怎么样 (zěnmeyàng)
• 怎麼著／怎麼着／怎么着
• 怎麼辦／怎么办 (zěnmebàn)
• 按怎 (àn-chóaⁿ) (Min Nan)

 

References

• Dictionary of Chinese Character Variants (教育部異體字字典), A01333
• “怎”, in 漢語多功能字庫 (Multi-function Chinese Character Database)‎^[1], 香港中文大學 (the Chinese University of Hong Kong), 2014–

Japanese

Kanji

怎

(Hyōgai kanji)

1. why
2. how

Readings

• On (unclassified): しん (shin)、そ (so)、そう (sō)
• Kun: いかで (ikade, 怎で)、どう (dou, 怎う)、どうで (doude, 怎うで)、なんぞ (nanzo, 怎)、いかで (ikade, 怎)、どう (dō, 怎)

Etymology 1

Kanji in this term
怎
いかで Hyōgai
kun'yomi

For pronunciation and definitions of 怎 – see the following entry.

【争いかで】 [adverb] how Alternative spellings 如何で, 怎で

(This term, 怎, is an alternative spelling of the above term.)

Etymology 2

Kanji in this term
怎
どう Hyōgai
kun'yomi

Alternative spelling
如何

For pronunciation and definitions of 怎 – see the following entry.

【どう】 [adverb] in what manner, how [adverb] what about... (used to make a suggestion) [interjection] Casual greeting: Howdy? What's new? What's up? [interjection] Casual question: It works? Is it OK? [interjection] Call out to horses or cows to control/stop them: Ho! Hoy! Whoa! Alternative spellings 如何, 怎う

(This term, 怎, is an alternative spelling (rare) of the above term.)

Etymology 3

Kanji in this term
怎
なんぞ Hyōgai
kun'yomi

For pronunciation and definitions of 怎 – see the following entry.

【なんぞ】 [adverb] This term needs a translation to English. [phrase] This term needs a translation to English. Alternative spelling 何ぞ

(This term, 怎, is an alternative spelling (obsolete) of the above term.)

Vietnamese

Han character

怎: Hán Nôm readings: chẩm, chẩn, tẩn, trẫm

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

References

• Nom Foundation