石頭上面寫著什麼東西，他們想要弄清楚。

There was something written on the stone, and they tried to make out what it was.

Source: Tatoeba

Sentence Composition

1 石頭 shítou stone

classifier: 塊
2 上面 shàngmiàn
  1. on top of
  2. above-mentioned
  3. also pr. shàngmian
=3 寫 xiě to write
=3 寫 xiè used in 寫意 xièyì
=4 著 zhāo
  1. a move in chess (Taiwan pr. zhuó)
  2. trick; tactic
  3. (dialect) okay; all right
  4. (dialect) to put in; to add
=4 著 zháo
  1. to touch
  2. to come in contact with
  3. to feel
  4. to be affected by
  5. to catch fire
  6. to burn
  7. (coll.) to fall asleep
  8. (after a verb) hitting the mark
  9. succeeding in
=4 著 zhe aspect particle indicating action in progress or ongoing state
=4 著 zhuó
  1. to wear (clothes)
  2. to contact
  3. to use
  4. to apply
=4 著 zhù
  1. to make known
  2. to show
  3. to prove
  4. to write
  5. book
  6. outstanding
5 什麼 shénme
  1. what?
  2. something; anything
=6 東西 dōngxī east and west
=6 東西 dōngxi
  1. thing
  2. stuff
  3. person

classifiers: 個, 件
7 他們 tāmen they; them
8 想要 xiǎngyào
  1. to want to
  2. to feel like
  3. to fancy
  4. to care for sb
  5. desirous of
9 弄清楚 nòngqingchū to make clear; to figure out; to clarify