▎究竟, jiùjìng, (Adv), I wonder

 

Function The adverb 究竟 expresses the speaker’s desire to get to the bottom of something, of some inquiry.

1 萬一發生核能災害，我們究竟該如何應變？

Wànyī fāshēng hénéng zāihài, wǒmen jiùjìng gāi rúhé yìngbiàn?

In the event of a nuclear disaster, what on earth would we do?

2 那個問題究竟要怎麼解決？

Nà ge wèntí jiùjìng yào zěnme jiějué?

How in the world can this problem be solved?

3 雲端科技究竟會不會帶來負面的影響？

Yúnduān kējì jiùjìng huì bú huì dàilái fùmiàn de yǐngxiǎng?

Are there negative impacts of cloud techonology after all?

4 台灣究竟有多少家便利商店？

Táiwān jiùjìng yǒu duōshǎo jiā biànlì shāngdiàn?

How many convenience stores are there in Taiwan, I wonder?

5 李教授的理想究竟能不能實現？

Lǐ jiàoshòu de lǐxiǎng jiùjìng néng bù néng shíxiàn?

Is there really any way Prof. Li’s ideals can come to fruition?

 

Usage

(1) 究竟 is more formal, while 到底 is more colloquial.

(2) 究竟, like 到底, is incompatible with 嗎.

＊究竟什麼是微整型嗎？

＊Jiùjìng shénme shì wéizhěngxíng ma?

(3) It can appear either before or after the subject, but when the subject is a question-word, 究竟 can only occur sentence-initially.

究竟誰了解這個問題？／＊誰究竟了解這個問題？

Jiùjìng shéi liǎojiě zhè ge wèntí?／＊Shéi jiùjìng liǎojiě zhè ge wèntí?

Who on earth understands this type of situation?

究竟誰的條件比較好？／＊誰的條件究竟比較好？

Jiùjìng shéi de tiáojiàn bǐjiào hǎo?／＊Shéi de tiáojiàn jiùjìng bǐjiào hǎo?

Whose qualifications are actually better?