Before, we saw that the か particle can be used to ask questions, however, it has other uses such as "either" or "or" when used in a list of two or more things. Just remember that when at the end of a sentence, it still indicates a question. が also has other uses than just marking the main subject of a sentence such as connecting two sentences together.
As mentioned before, avoid translating particles into English; while it may be tempting to associate a particle with an English word, the meanings in Japanese are not always the same. Not only may you find a different particle takes the place but the English interpretation may be wrong or not sound right.
Choice, Doubt or Uncertainty
Remember what we said before? While the か particle may be likened to that of the English question mark (?), か is actually a marker indicating the unknown.
| Japanese | English |
|---|---|
| 雨か雪か ame ka yuki ka |
rain or snow |
| 明日は雨か雪か分からない ashita wa ame ka yuki ka wakaranai |
I don't know if it'll rain or snow tomorrow (As for tomorrow, I don't know whether it'll rain or snow) |
As you can see in this sentence, it is unknown whether it will あめ (rain) or ゆき (snow) tomorrow and this expresses the uncertainty of the speaker.
There is a chance you may find yourself using another particle such as が, を, で, に and so on at the last item but when this happens, you will drop either the か or the other particle; it is not common to use both at the same time, choose only one of them.
-
雨か雪か分からない
ame ka yuki ka wakaranai
-
雨か雪が分からない
ame ka yuki ga wakaranai
-
雨か雪かが分からない
ame ka yuki ka ga wakaranai
Here, sentence (1) and (2) are ok but using かが in sentence (3) is not natural. This also applies to かを as seen in the next example.
-
ピザかパスタか作ると思う
piza ka pasuta ka tsukuru to omou
-
ピザかパスタを作ると思う
piza ka pasuta o tsukuru to omou
-
ピザかパスタかを作ると思う
piza ka pasuta ka o tsukuru to omou
Again, in this sentence above "I think I'll make pizza or pasta", the use of か is marking a choice, as for what "I'll make", it is still unknown.
か may also be interpreted as: "if", "or", "whether or not", "I wonder" and so on. You may also use どうか as the last item to also imply "whether or not":
| Japanese | English |
|---|---|
| 明日は雨か雪か分からない ashita wa ame [ka] yuki [ka] wakaranai |
I don't know if it'll rain or snow tomorrow (if... or...) |
| 東京に行くか行かないかまだ決めていません toukyou ni iku [ka] ikanai [ka] mada kimete imasen |
I still haven't decided if I'll go to Tokyo or not ([if / whether]... or not...) |
| ケーキを食べるくかどうかまだ決めていません ke-ki o taberu [ka] [dou ka] mada kimete imasen |
I haven't decided yet whether I'll eat cake or not (whether... or not...) |
When there is uncertainty about a state or reason, か may be used between two sentences to express something like "I wonder...", for example:
| Japanese | English |
|---|---|
| かぜをひいたのか頭が痛いんです kaze o hiita no [ka] atama ga itai ndesu |
I wonder if I have caught a cold, my head hurts (I wonder...) |
Connecting sentences with が
Before, we covered が as a Subject particle which is kind of very similar to か that it marks the Unknown; after all, unlike は that is stating a topic already known by context, が is generally used to mark "new information", information that would otherwise be Unknown unless there were some context or hints.
While particle が may be commonly seen as the subject particle but it has many other uses than just that; in this part of the lesson, we'll be looking at how が can be used to connect two sentences to say "however", "yet", "but", "and" or "although".
Here are two separate sentences:
-
今日は暖かい
kyou wa attakai
It is warm today
-
明日は寒くなりそうだ
ashita wa samuku narisou da
Tomorrow is going to be cold
If we were to place the が particle between these two sentences, we can express a connection something like "however", "yet" or "but". For example:
今日は暖かいが明日は寒くなりそうだ
kyou wa attakai [ga] ashita wa samuku narisou da
It is warm today but tomorrow is going to be cold
このゲームは好きがグラフィックは最悪だ
Kono ge-mu wa suki [ga] gurafikku wa saiaku da
I like this game, although the graphics are terrible
It is important to note that な-adjectives and nouns cannot be attached to が when connecting two sentences; they will always need either だ or です. This is because it must be in a verbal form:
彼女は
[kanojo wa shitsurei desu ga] watashi wa kanojo o aishiteimasu
She is rude but I love her.
Also, two connecting sentences do not need to be opposites (warm vs cold weather) or oppose each other (good game vs terrible graphics); In the following sentence, these two sentence compliment each other. The sentence marked by が provides context to the main idea:
桜を見に行ったのですがとてもきれいでした
sakura o mi ni itta nodesu [ga] totemo kirei deshita
I went to see the cherry blossoms and they were very pretty
Sometimes, a sentence may end with が where the second sentence is not stated. This may be used to soften a refusal or contrast a meaning with the one that is unspoken.
そうかも知れないが・・・
sou kamo shirenai [ga] ...
That may be so, however ... (I think we can do better)
今忙しいが・・・
ima isogashii [ga] ...
I'm busy right now ... (so you'll have to wait a bit longer)
If you want to learn more about が as a conjunctive particle, we have a whole lesson about conjunctions in the lesson: Conjunctions with が or けど.
※ Text in ( Parentheses ) are not part of the translation, just a possible suggestion of what the unspoken second sentence could be.
Additional Notes
Some words may have different meanings or expressions so check out online dictionaries such as japandict.com or jisho.org to find out more.
These example sentences may be presented in an unnatural or artificial way. Continue to broaden your research and listen to how real Japanese native people speak. It's important to make sure you have many other resources to use. Do not rely on this website alone.
The lack of the "Oxford Comma" in this lesson:
Please note that the use of the Oxford Comma is completely unnecessary and optional in the English language but many people do use it as a stylistic choice, even though it's misunderstood and used 99.99% of the time in situations where it should not ever need to be used.
The main reason here is the lack of understanding of "context" in the Western world. Most people struggle to identify the difference between clauses and lists which leads to ambiguity.
If I say "I met my parents, Humpty Dumpty and Cinderella", it should be pretty obvious from context to know whether those are the names of my parents or separate individuals. Any need for an optional comma then you should consider rearranging or rephrasing the sentence to remove such ambiguity.
There is also not need to include it into every Japanese sentence either, it is only a personal choice. The character for the comma in Japanese can literally be placed anywhere in a sentence as it has no affect at all on the overall meaning like in English; it generally expresses pauses in natural speech and may replace particles that are obvious, most commonly は or for lists and clauses.
Related Lessons and References
Here is a list of other pages as a reference of what else you may be interested in reading: