缘何

緣何

yuánhé

adverb #48,755

Meanings

1 why?
2 for what reason? (literary)

Characters

Examples

缘何至此，无人知晓。

Yuánhé zhìcǐ, wúrén zhīxiǎo.

Why it came to this, no one knows.

你缘何深夜来访？

Nǐ yuánhé shēnyè láifǎng?

For what reason do you visit so late at night?

Tips

register

Strongly literary. Spoken Chinese uses 为什么 (wèishénme) or 怎么 (zěnme). 缘何 belongs in essays, headlines, and lines of dialogue meant to sound classical.

memory

缘 = 'cause/reason' (as in 缘故 yuángù), 何 = 'what' — literally 'on what cause?'.

Stroke Order

缘 yuán

何 hé