Example sentences
nǐ你zěn怎me么qù去？
How do you go?
zhè这gè个zěn怎me么shuō说？
How do you say this?
About this word
怎 carries the meaning "how" and 么 is the same light suffix you find in 什么, 那么, 这么, 多么; it marks a word as a pronoun or a question word and adds no meaning of its own. 怎么 asks about manner or means: 你怎么去? (how do you get there). Before an adjective, or with 了, it often slides into "how come": 你怎么了? 怎么这么贵? The 么 is always neutral, zěn me.
The story behind the character
怎
怎 is 乍 on top with 心 underneath. This is a young character. It is not in the Han dynasty dictionary, and it only turns up in everyday writing many centuries later. 心 is the mind, 乍 is there for the sound. 怎么 asks how, and 怎么样 asks what something is like.
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.