what? – shen-muh

Written as shénme or shenme

To remember that what is pronounced shen-muh (shenme) in Mandarin Chinese, use the following mnemonic:

She switched the light on. "What have you been doing? How has she ended up so muddy?" (shen-muh).

Note: To clearly distinguish that we are dealing with the word "what" we have enhanced the picture above by connecting the word "what" with "watts" from a light bulb.