Basic Grammar: all 87 lessons free
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怎么 + Verb — How to Say It, Find It, Fix It
怎么+动词 — 怎么说、怎么走、怎么办
怎么 never works alone: put a verb behind it and you can ask how anything is said, opened, eaten or reached. 怎么说 · 怎么走 · 怎么办.
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Memory hook
怎么说 · 怎么走 · 怎么办
The survival hows
Tap any line. The verb after 怎么 is the whole question — swap it and you're asking something else.
Tap any line to hear it
Memory hook
怎么走 asks directions. 怎么去 asks transport.
说, 走, or 办?「说」「走」还是「办」？
No pressure — just making it stick.
“Movie”的中文怎么____？
“Movie” de Zhōngwén zěnme ____?
How do you say “movie” in Chinese?
请问，人民公园怎么____？
Qǐngwèn, Rénmín Gōngyuán zěnme ____?
Excuse me, how do I get to People's Park?
我没带护照，怎么____？
Wǒ méi dài hùzhào, zěnme ____?
I didn't bring my passport — what do I do?
Which answer fits?
At a fruit stall, what is really being asked?
我不知道怎么____百度地图。
Wǒ bù zhīdào zěnme ____ Bǎidù Dìtú.
I don't know how to use Baidu Maps.
Your turn — say it
请问这个饭店怎么走？
Excuse me, how do I get to this restaurant?
Your turn — say it
没有地铁了，怎么办？
The metro's stopped running — what now?
This lesson's characters
The heart that asks, the strength that copes, the feet that go.
how
形meaning + sound
乍 on top lends the sound; 心 underneath does the wondering — Chinese files its question-feelings under the heart. You have met this heart holding up another character: 您, the polite you, keeps one too. When 怎 asks, it asks from below the ribs: how on earth is this done?
to handle, to deal with
形meaning + sound
The full form 辦 squeezes 力, strength, between two 辛 — the character for bitter. Handling a problem, honestly drawn: effort in the middle, bitterness on both sides. Simplification kept the strength and boiled each 辛 down to a single drop — sweat, you may decide. 怎么办 asks where to put the strength.
to walk, to go
会two ideas joined
In the oldest script this is a man at full sprint — head thrown forward, arms swinging — planted over a footprint. 走 originally meant to run; over the centuries it slowed down to walking, which is roughly what happens to all of us. Ask 怎么走 and you are literally asking: how do the feet go from here?
Take these with you
Everything worth taking away. Tap any line to hear it.
Words 生词
Characters 汉字
Before you go课后回顾
- Find one thing today you can't say and ask the air: ____的中文怎么说？ Then go look it up — the question only counts if you collect the answer.
- Before you ask for a place, decide what you're missing: the street (怎么走, place first) or the vehicle (怎么去, place after).
- You met 你怎么了？ last lesson — what's wrong. 怎么样 — how was it — is still coming. Today stays 怎么 + verb: the how-to.
- Next time something goes sideways, say 怎么办？ out loud. It fixes nothing, but it will be grammatically perfect.