<p>The 吗 is a modal to make the question more polite. Its also grammatically correct to say just 你要买什么? which directly translates as What do you want to buy? But it is a bit brusque.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-03-01T20:54:03.517Z
Adding 吗 makes it a _yes/no_ question, and 什么 in this context is used as an indefinite pronoun, rather than as a relative one: it means _something (or other)_, not _what?_ in the sentence given in the question. The expected answer to 你想买什么东西？ would be something like 一件衣服 or 一本书, for example. The expected answer to 你想买(点)什么东西吗？ would be 想 or 不想.
Janus Bahs Jacquet
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-03-01T21:11:39.097Z
relative or interrogative？in the case of interrogative pronoun instead of 吗， 呢 is recommended
user6065
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-03-01T10:47:37.760Z
2015-03-01T10:47:37.760Z
Alex Ung
<p>According to tatoeba translation of "Is there anything you want to buy?" is "想要买什么东西吗？" Is there use of 什么 and 吗 in one sentence? If there is not how can I translate"Is there anything you want to buy?" better?</p>

<p><a href="http://tatoeba.org/eng/sentences/search?query=%E6%83%B3%E8%A6%81%E4%B9%B0%E4%BB%80%E4%B9%88%E4%B8%9C%E8%A5%BF%E5%90%97%EF%BC%9F&amp;from=und&amp;to=und" rel="nofollow">http://tatoeba.org/eng/sentences/search?query=%E6%83%B3%E8%A6%81%E4%B9%B0%E4%BB%80%E4%B9%88%E4%B8%9C%E8%A5%BF%E5%90%97%EF%BC%9F&amp;from=und&amp;to=und</a></p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-03-03T06:00:25.237Z
I asked this question before haha! http://chinese.stackexchange.com/q/5928/3561 here 什么 has the "anything/something" pronoun meaning.
Ming
<translation><sentence-structure>
Translation of "想要买什么东西吗？"
# Translation of "想要买什么东西吗？"

(Asked by: username_0 on 2015-03-01)

According to tatoeba translation of "Is there anything you want to buy?" is "想要买什么东西吗？" Is there use of 什么 and 吗 in one sentence? If there is not how can I translate"Is there anything you want to buy?" better?

<http://tatoeba.org/eng/sentences/search?query=%E6%83%B3%E8%A6%81%E4%B9%B0%E4%BB%80%E4%B9%88%E4%B8%9C%E8%A5%BF%E5%90%97%EF%BC%9F&from=und&to=und>

**Tags:** translation, sentence-structure
> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: I asked this question before haha! http://chinese.stackexchange.com/q/5928/3561 here 什么 has the "anything/something" pronoun meaning.  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2015-03-01. Score: 1 | Accepted answer

The 吗 is a modal to make the question more polite. Its also grammatically correct to say just 你要买什么? which directly translates as What do you want to buy? But it is a bit brusque.

> **Comments:**
> **username_3**: Adding 吗 makes it a _yes/no_ question, and 什么 in this context is used as an indefinite pronoun, rather than as a relative one: it means _something (or other)_, not _what?_ in the sentence given in the question. The expected answer to 你想买什么东西？ would be something like 一件衣服 or 一本书, for example. The expected answer to 你想买(点)什么东西吗？ would be 想 or 不想.  
> **username_4**: relative or interrogative？in the case of interrogative pronoun instead of 吗， 呢 is recommended  

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