How did you (first) meet each other?

[yuechu]

大家好！

Let's say you are talking to a couple of friends, or a married couple, etc. How would you ask the question "How did you (first) meet each other?" in Chinese? Would it be "你们是怎么认识(的？了？)"? (Feel free to propose something completely different!)

Thanks!

 

[SimonTsai]

Your sentence will be perfectly natural with 的 at the end and without the particle 了.

 

[yuechu]

Thanks, Simon! 😀
How about without "是"? "你们怎么认识的"？

 

[SimonTsai]

That works, too. But personally I prefer the version with 是.

 

[yuechu]

Thanks! 謝謝！😄

 

[SuperXW]

你们怎么认识了？ means that "how come have you known each other? (because you shouldn't have)"

 

[dojibear]

I understand 你们是怎么认识的?, but I am tempted to write 你们是什么认识的? instead. I don't know why. Is that totally wrong?

 

[SuperXW]

I understand 你们是怎么认识的?, but I am tempted to write 你们是什么认识的? instead. I don't know why. Is that totally wrong?

怎么=how
什么=what
It feels totally wrong to most Mandarin speakers, but is common in Hong Kong.
See 這到底是什麼回事！？

 

[AquisM]

怎么=how
什么=what
It feels totally wrong to most Mandarin speakers, but is common in Hong Kong.
See 這到底是什麼回事！？

Though, in this context of 怎么认识, even Cantonese speakers would use 怎么 since, as you probably know, we would use the Cantonese equivalent 点, not 咩.

 

[SuperXW]

Though, in this context of 怎么认识, even Cantonese speakers would use 怎么 since, as you probably know, we would use the Cantonese equivalent 点, not 咩.

Yes. I didn't make it clear.
Speaking of using 什麼 instead of 怎麼, it seems that only 什麼回事 is common in Hong Kong.

 

[小心心]

你们是怎么认识的？this expression is correct.