What is the best translation of shénme?

[Chinese Learner]

Hi,

I'm transcribing some pinyin into mandarin to teach myself to write a few basic simplified words, but I keep coming across a several different versions.

Can some please tell me what is the correct translation of 'shénme'?

Nǐ yào shénme? -> What do you want?

Is it:

你要什么?

or

你要甚么?

Or have I got it completely wrong?

By the way does anyone know of a translation website on the net that translates several words at the same time into characters rather than a single one word a a go, so that I can input all the 'stock' phrases? Free or otherwise?

Thank you!

[imron]

By the way does anyone know of a translation website on the net that translates several words at the same time into characters rather than a single one word a a go

See google translate.

[leosmith]

What is the best translation of shénme?

I'm torn. Ok, 2 answers.

1. Yes

2. Who's on first?

[Lu]

什么 is the completely simplified version, 甚麼 the completely traditional one. Both are correct, and it seems combinations of simp and trad are also widely used, but am not sure of the rules for this.

[musingpuppy]

Usually 甚 means "what". "你做甚？" means "what are you doing?"

[Lu]

"你做甚？" means "what are you doing?"

Don't you mean 啥, as in 你做啥? I don't think I've ever seen 甚 used like this.

[Bibiy]

two versions have the same meaning .Basically,they have no difference .you can use both,but "什么" is more often in common life.

[musingpuppy]

Lu,

For example: 这样的不孝的儿子养他做甚！

[Bibiy]

i think "这样的不孝儿子养他干嘛"is better,because the "做甚"is usually used in dialect.

[文言訓開班]

I'm of the impression that they're considered different tones: 什 shen2, 甚 shen4. I can't imagine it makes much difference which is spoken, as I imagine it's a phonetic rule that controls how the sound comes out: for some speakers, it's the first sometimes, the second others. In Cantonese, the difference is bigger though: 什 sap6, 甚 zhen3.

Some words take only one of the two: 甚至

They mean the same thing, though, which comes across better in 什 - many. 甚至 means something like 'even as much as'.

[muyongshi]

In simplified Chinese only the 什么 is correct for what. Simplified still uses the complex shen 甚 （fourth tone) but is different and is used in words like 甚至. Many automatic translator from traditional to simplified will miss that and you will see 甚么 but this is not correct usage in simplified Chinese and is not acceptable.

[fantasys218]

什么is used widely in daily life ,and 甚么nearly not used.