▎Pronouns Interrogative to Refer to All-inclusion or All- exclusion (1)

 

Function Interrogative pronouns can appear in declarative sentences in Chinese. When they do, they often co-occur with 都dōu ‘all’ to indicate totality without exception, that is, total inclusion in affirmative sentences and total exclusion in negative sentences.

 

	Affirmative	Negative	Question
誰 shéi	everyone	nobody	who?
哪裡nǎlĭ	everywhere	nowhere	where?
什麼 shénme	everything	nothing	what?
什麼時候 shénme shíhòu	anytime, always	never	when?
怎麼＋V zĕnme＋V	whichever way	no way, never	how?

1 誰都喜歡去旅行。

Shéi dōu xǐhuān qù lǚxíng.

Everyone likes to travel.

2 哪裡都有好吃的東西。

Nǎlǐ dōu yǒu hǎochī de dōngxi.

There’s delicious food everywhere you go.

3 他什麼都想買。

Tā shénme dōu xiǎng mǎi.

He wants to buy everything.

4 他們什麼時候都在上網。

Tāmen shénme shíhòu dōu zài shàngwǎng.

They are online all the time.

5 只要不叫我出錢，怎麼做都可以。

Zhǐyào bú jiào wǒ chū qián, zěnme zuò dōu kěyǐ.

As long as I don’t have to fork out money, anything is O.K. with me.

 

Structures

Negation：In negative sentences, question words are used with either 都dōu or 也yě to indicate total exclusion. The negation marker 不bù or 沒méi comes after 都dōu/也yě.

1 誰也不喜歡難看的東西。

Shéi yě bù xǐhuān nánkàn de dōngxi.

No one likes ugly things.

2 昨天我哪裡都沒去，在家看電視。

Zuótiān wǒ nǎlǐ dōu méi qù, zài jiā kàn diànshì.

I didn’t go anywhere yesterday. I watched TV at home.

3 我今天什麼也不想吃。

Wǒ jīntiān shénme yě bù xiǎng chī.

I don’t feel like eating anything today.

4 下個星期，我什麼時候都不在家。我要去旅行。

Xià ge xīngqí, wǒ shénme shíhòu dōu bú zài jiā. Wǒ yào qù lǚxíng.

Next week, I won’t be home the whole time. I will be traveling.

5 中國菜很難做。我怎麼做都不太好吃。

Zhōngguó cài hěn nán zuò. Wǒ zěnme zuò dōu bú tài hǎochī.

Chinese food is hard to make. No matter what I do, it does not tastes good.

Questions：This pattern forms 嗎ma questions only, in addition to 是不是, 好不好, etc.

1 這家餐廳的東西什麼都好吃嗎？

Zhè jiā cāntīng de dōngxi shénme dōu hǎochī ma?

Is everything in this restaurant tasty?

2 你今天什麼時候都在公司嗎？

Nǐ jīntiān shénme shíhòu dōu zài gōngsī ma?

Will you be at the office all day today?

3 他們誰都去過法國，是不是？

Tāmen shéi dōu qùguò Fǎguó, shìbúshì?

They have all been to France, haven’t they?