The character 问 (wèn): to ask
- Pronunciation
- wèn
- Strokes
- 6
- Level
- HSK 2
- Radical
- 門
- Made of
- 门口
What it means
to ask; to inquire
Where its shape comes from
Xu Shen treats this as a sound compound: "to enquire; from 口, with 門 for the pronunciation." The mouth carries the meaning and the gate supplies the sound: 问 is read wèn where 门 is read mén, which is the ordinary sort of resemblance between a character and its phonetic element. The scene one pictures, somebody knocking at a door to ask a question, is therefore not what the source claims, useful though it is for remembering the graph.
Source: Xu Shen, Shuowen Jiezi (121 CE); the Chinese University of Hong Kong character database.
A way to remember it
The frame of 门, the gate learned in the seventh row, and inside it the 口 of the sixth. The square TOUCHES NOTHING: not the bar above it, not the left upright, not the right one. The space around it belongs to the character.
This is a memory aid, not the origin of the character.
Words it appears in
- 问题 wèn tí · HSK 2 question; problem; issue; topic; CL:個|个[ge4]
- 提问 tí wèn · HSK 5 to question; to quiz; to grill
- 询问 xún wèn · HSK 5 to inquire
- 疑问 yí wèn · HSK 5 question; interrogation; doubt
- 问候 wèn hòu · HSK 5 to give one's respects; to send a greeting; (fig.) (coll.) to make offensive reference to (somebody dear to the person to whom one is speaking)
- 学问 xué wèn · HSK 5 learning; knowledge; CL:個|个[ge4]
Writing it
See the stroke order of 问, animated stroke by stroke.