Asking questions in Japanese is very simple. You could even say it is a lot more easier than asking questions in English. Do you remember when we covered the は (wa) particle? Well, we are going to learn a new particle that will create questions. This particle goes at the very end of a sentence.
The new particle we are going to learn in this lesson is か (ka). Placing this at the end of a sentence makes the sentence a question. This is the only thing that will need changing. Here are two examples to compare:
While the か particle may be likened to that of the English question mark (?), か is technically a marker indicating the unknown. Usually, it marks a sentence as a question but it has several other uses other than making a question such as expressing alternatives ["either ... or ..."] or forming an indefinite pronoun. For now, let's not get into anything too complicated.
New Words to Learn
If you've been practicing making sentences, this should be of no problem learning. Try using these words to make sentences as a question too.
| English | Romaji | Kana | Kanji | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Where | doko | どこ | 何処 | |
| When | itsu | いつ | 何時 | |
| Why | doushite | どうして | ||
| Who | dare | だれ | 誰 | |
| What | nani | なに | 何 | |
| Toilet (room) | otearai | おてあらい | お手洗い | |
| a | Strong | tsuyoi | つよい | 強い |
| a | Weak | yowai | よわい | 弱い |
| A | Pretty | kirei | きれい | 綺麗 |
| a | Ugly | minikui | みにくい | 醜い |
Asking Questions with かformal
Asking questions is very important when you travel to other countries. You are sure to come across a lot of things you don't understand. Be positive to make sure you are practicing making sentences. Both statements and questions. Here are some more example sentences to check out:
| Japanese | English |
|---|---|
| あなたは強いですか anata wa tsuyoi desu ka |
Are you strong? |
| お手洗いはどこですか otearai wa doko desu ka |
Where are the toilets? (USA: Where is the bathroom?) |
| 忍さんは誰ですか shinobu-san wa dare desu ka |
Who is Mr. Shinobu? |
| 茶色の猫はきれいですか chairo no neko wa kirei desu ka |
Is the brown cat pretty? |
| 日曜日ですか nichiyoubi desu ka |
Is it Sunday today? |
Notice that in English, words change order in a question compared to a statement: "[Is it] Sunday today?" and "[It is] Sunday today". In Japanese, there is no need to change anything other then placing か at the end of a sentence.
Traditionally, a sentence with か in Japanese will end in a "。" (period) and it still does in many cases but nowadays, you will most likely see a reqular question mark "?" instead of か especially in informal writing. Sometimes, you may even see か? together.
Did you notice in the example above "nichiyoubi desu ka" is missing the word for "today"? Remember, if the topic is obvious from context, it can be omitted; if it's obvious we are talking about "today" then we can just drop the "kyou wa" part altogether.
Using か with Question Words
Before, it was mentioned that the か particle indicates the unknown. Staying true to this, placing か after a question word transforms it into an indefinite pronoun. An indefinite pronoun is a pronoun that indicates nobody in particular. In English, indefinite pronouns are somebody, someone, something, anybody, anyone and anything, including negative pronouns like no one, nobody and nothing.
| Japanese | English |
|---|---|
| doko ka | somewhere |
| itsu ka | sometime |
| dare ka | someone |
| nani ka | something |
These can be considered the same as regular nouns and can be used in the same way too. For example: 「誰か
Casual Questions with かinformal
It may be easy to say that the use of か for asking questions with informal words works the same, however, this is not the case. Depending on the context and intonation, it may just come across very rude or even sarcastic. Be careful about using か when speaking informally.
The question marker か is not used with informal speech to ask questions; do not replace the formal forms of です (desu) with だ (da). Remember, だ is not about politeness, it's used to declare what you believe is a fact; this with か is like declaring a fact and asking a question at the same time which doesn't make sense.
- kore wa hon desu ka
- kore wa hon da ka
Asking questions in casual speech is more commonly used when considering if something is true or not; this works with verbs and adjectives.
| Japanese | English |
|---|---|
| こんなのを本当に食べるか？ konna no o hontouni taberu ka? |
Are you really going to eat something like this? |
Instead of using か, you may use nothing at all except for a rise in intonation or end with the explanatory の particle. We will look more into the の particle in a later lesson but you may also do your own research.
| Japanese | English |
|---|---|
| こんなのを本当に食べる？ konna no o hontouni taberu? |
Are you really going to eat something like this? |
※ Don't worry about using verbs and adjectives just yet. We'll cover more about verbs soon as there is too much to explain here and we'll be discussing them across several lessons.
Additional Notes
Please remember, the example sentences we are giving may be presented in an unnatural or artificial way. Continue to broaden your research and listen to how real Japanese people use these words. The main point here is to understand how the language itself works which is done using artificial examples. As we get into later lessons, we'll show you more casual or common Japanese.
As mentioned in the introduction, we'll be using mostly British English (UK) in this course. For those who don't know what a Toilet or WC (water closet) is, that would be a bathroom or restroom in American language (even if such room is absent of any actual "bath" or "resting" space).
In English, a toilet can refer to a very small room containing a single toilet. Some toilets may even include a sink (especially public toilets) as well as a bath or shower in almost all homes (only then may it be referred to as an actual bathroom).
The British meaning of Toilet has the same meaning in Japanese too. Unfortunately, too many translations, definitions and cultural/historic references are Americanised and usually lose their original meanings. For example: トイレ (toire) is short for toilet but gets translated as "bathroom" instead.