NetChai Chinese
你今天怎么样？
nǐ jīn tiān zěn me yàng ？
How are you today · trad. 你今天怎麼樣？

你今天怎么样？ (nǐ jīntiān zěnmeyàng?) is a common and natural way to ask 'how are you today?' in Mandarin Chinese. It's used to inquire about someone's general well-being or how their day is going.

When to use it

Neutral and friendly. For a more polite or formal tone, especially when speaking to elders or superiors, you can use 您今天怎么样？ (nín jīntiān zěnmeyàng?). A common reply is 我很好 (wǒ hěn hǎo, 'I'm very good') or 还不错 (hái bùcuò, 'not bad').

How to pronounce it

Sounds roughly like “nee jeen-TYEN zen-mey-YANG?” Note the rising tone on '天' and '怎', and the falling-rising tone on '样'.

Other ways to say it

  • 您今天怎么样？nín jīn tiān zěn me yàng ？How are you today? (polite)
  • 你今天好吗？nǐ jīn tiān hǎo ma ？Are you good today? (more direct 'good or not')
  • 你最近怎么样？nǐ zuì jìn zěn me yàng ？How have you been recently? (broader timeframe)

Examples

你好，你今天怎么样？
nǐ hǎo ， nǐ jīn tiān zěn me yàng ？
Hello, how are you today?
我今天很好，你今天怎么样？
wǒ jīn tiān hěn hǎo ， nǐ jīn tiān zěn me yàng ？
I'm good today, how are you today?
你今天怎么样？看起来有点累。
nǐ jīn tiān zěn me yàng ？ kàn qǐ lái yǒu diǎn lèi 。
How are you today? You look a bit tired.
Pro tip: While both 你今天怎么样？ and 你今天好吗？ can mean 'how are you today?', 怎么样 (zěnmeyàng) is more open-ended, asking 'how things are going', whereas 好吗 (hǎo ma) is more of a yes/no question asking 'are you good?'

Related phrases

和平 · Peace钱 · Money闭嘴 · Shut up
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