Chto, or Shto, means what! Like, "what did you say?". Or "What the heck is that thing"? Russian what is Chto. What, in Russian is Chto. Chto are you doing? Chto are you reading right now? It is not used however, when there is more than one object in question. For example, Russian's would not say what time is it, they would ask "which time is it". Or, what one of these do you want, would be literally, "which one do you want"?