究竟

jiūjìng

adverb HSK 4 #1,282

Meanings

Literally 'investigate to the end' — getting to the very bottom of something.

Nǐ jiūjìng xiǎng zěnmeyàng?

What exactly do you want?

Jiūjìng fāshēng le shénme shì?

What on earth happened?

Tā jiūjìng qù le nǎlǐ?

Where exactly did he go?

usage

究竟 adds emphasis and urgency to questions, like 'exactly' or 'on earth' in English. It expresses the speaker's strong desire to know the truth.

grammar

究竟 is placed before the verb in questions. It's similar to 到底 (dàodǐ), which is slightly more colloquial.

究 jiū

竟 jìng