Example sentences
zhè这shì是shén什me么？
What is this?
nǐ你xiào笑shén什me么？
What are you laughing at?
About this word
什么 is a phonetic spelling of a spoken question word; neither character carries its usual meaning here, so there is no literal picture to build from. The grammar is where the work is. Chinese question words stay exactly where the answer would go: 你叫什么名字 (you are called what name), 这是什么 (this is what). Nothing moves to the front the way English "what" does. As a modifier it sits before the noun (什么人, what kind of person). On its own with a sharp tone it becomes an exclamation of disbelief.
The story behind the character
什
什 is 亻 (person) plus 十, and 十 is doing the phonetic work. Its old job was counting in tens, a unit of ten men. In 什么 it carries no meaning at all, only sound. The word itself is old colloquial: it was written 甚麼 first, and 什么 is just the worn-down modern spelling.
么
么 is the small one. The traditional 麼 is 麻 (hemp) with 幺 underneath, and 幺 means tiny, a little thread. Xu Shen wrote 麼, 細也: fine, slight. These days it survives mostly as a suffix with no meaning of its own, the 么 in 什么, 怎么 and 那么.