If you pay enough attention to what the Chinese people often say in daily talk, you may found some interesting expressions, especially the tones they carry. For example, when hearing people say 什么东西, those who study in intensive Mandarin course in China should know it is to show contempt for something or somebody, usually to curse somebody. For example, 他还是社会名人呢，出这种桃色事件，什么东西！It can be used as 什么玩意儿.

It often happens in daily life that you are surprised by something or somebody. When Chinese people say什么风把你吹来了, they usually mean to show that they are surprised at somebody’s arrival like 哎呀，什么风把你吹来了. Sometimes, it can be 是什么风把你吹来的. For instance, 毕业十多年了，你从来没参加过同学聚会，这次是什么风把你吹来的？

The structure …什么呀 is also an important expression widely used in oral Chinese which is to negate something. Those who study Mandarin online should know it is used after the verbs, meaning “no” and “don‘t”. For example, 跑什么呀！时间还早着呢carries the meaning of “do not run”. When it is placed after the adjectives, meaning “not at all” like “便宜什么啊？”, meaning not cheap at all.

In many cases, it can be used separately as什么呀. It is also used to negate the other party’s saying, meaning the thing is not like what the other party said. 甲：听说这星期要考试了。乙：什么呀！是下星期考. When you learn to speak Chinese language, you may hear the expression 什么意思which is to think that somebody shouldn’t do like that, carrying the tone of questioning and dissatisfaction. Accordingly, you can make sentence like他明知道我现在需要帮助，却连个电话都不打，什么意思！