咋

zǎ

adverb #4,582

Meanings

1 how
2 why (colloquial, short for 怎么)

Characters

how; why (colloquial)

Examples

你咋来了？

Nǐ zǎ lái le?

How come you're here?

这咋办？

Zhè zǎ bàn?

What do we do about this?

咋回事？

Zǎ huí shì?

What happened?

Tips

register

咋 is very colloquial and common in northern Chinese dialects. It replaces 怎么 in casual speech.

usage

咋 can mean both 'how' (咋办 = how to deal with it) and 'why' (你咋来了 = why did you come).

Stroke Order

咋 zǎ