问

問
wèn
verb HSK 1 #201

Meanings

  1. 1 to ask
  2. 2 to inquire

Characters

Mouth radical 口 inside a door 门 - asking is like opening a door with your mouth.

Examples

HSK 1
Wǒ wèn nǐ yí ge wèntí.
Let me ask you a question.
HSK 1
Nǐ qù wèn lǎoshī ba.
Go ask the teacher.
HSK 1
Tā wèn wǒ jiào shénme míngzi.
He asked me what my name is.

Tips

history
The traditional character 問 has 口 (mouth) inside 門 (door) - asking questions at someone's door. A vivid way to remember it.

Components

radical
门 mén
door; gate
Outer 门 - the gate radical (simplified from 門 in 1956), indexing radical for 问. Pictographically a pair of doors hinged on either side. The traditional 問 was filed under 口 (mouth), but the simplified character is indexed under 门. Supplies the sound too (mén → wèn, an old labial-initial shift visible across the men/wen pair, e.g. 闻).
semantic
口 kǒu
mouth
Inner 口 - the mouth doing the asking. Together with the gate above the picture is famously evocative: a mouth at someone's door, calling out a question. Same speech-action 口 found in 吃, 喝, 叫, 听 - but here it is the semantic core rather than the indexing radical, since 门 took over indexing in the simplified form.

Stroke Order

问 wèn