医院在哪里？

How it works

Place + 在 (zài) + 哪里 (nǎ lǐ).

• 医院 (yī yuàn): hospital
• 在 (zài): to be located at
• 哪里 (nǎ lǐ): where

Question word order

Unlike English, which puts the question word first ('Where is...'), Chinese keeps the standard Subject-Verb-Object word order. The question word 哪里 simply sits in the spot of the expected answer.

Tone sandhi

哪里 (nǎ lǐ) consists of two 3rd tones. Following the tone sandhi rule, the first syllable 哪 is pronounced as a 2nd tone (ná) when spoken, though the pinyin remains written as nǎ.

Notes

A standard location question using the verb 'zài' (to be located at).