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Interrogatives: Asking questions in Japanese

Understanding interrogatives or question words is essential. For
example, in your speaking test you will be asked anywhere up to 50 questions
within the allotted 15 minutes. The written paper always has predominantly
questions written in Japanese which you must answer. Therefore expertise in
question words is a must.

The question particle
A simple question in Japanese follows the same word-order as for a
statement but with addition of the question particle KA () at the end.

Statement:

Ms. Yamamoto is a 6
th
year student.
Question:
Is Ms. Yamamoto a 6
th
year student?

Statement:

Mr. Sato can speak Japanese.
Question:
Can Mr. Sato speak Japanese?

Note that it is not necessary to have a question mark when KA is present.

Asking questions in the plain style
In the plain speaking style, (Using the dictionary form of the verb) the particle
ka is omitted and the intonation rises. This is often shown in writing by the use
of a question mark.

Is Ms. Yamamoto a 6
th
year student?





Can Mr. Sato speak Japanese?

The above examples are known as closed questions. That is they
have no question word such as what or why etc. The answer to a closed
question is either yes or no.

Open questions

Open questions are questions which cannot be answered with a yes or no
answer. These questions have question words (known as interrogatives) such
as what, when or how long etc.

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Closed question:

Is Ms. Yamamoto a 6
th
year student? A: Yes / No

Open question:

What year student is Ms. Yamamoto? A: 6
th
year

Asking about things
The word for what? is Nani

What are you doing tomorrow?

Whats in the bag?

However, this often becomes NAN in Kanji compounds, e.g.:



Nan ji
What time is it?

Nan ban
What number is it?

Nan gatsu
What month is it?

Nan youbi
What day of the week is it?

In some compounds with counters, it can be translated as how
many or which, e.g.

Nan sai
How old are you?

Nan kai
How many times did you go to Tokyo?

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Nan biki
How many dogs do you have?

Nan kai*
Which floor is the restaurant on?

* Notice that the kanji used for how many times and which floor
are different even though the pronunciation is the same.

Asking about people
The word for who? is dare

Who is that person standing over there?

To ask to whom something belongs, use Dare no ():


Whose dictionary is this?

Donata is used as a polite equivalent of dare ():

Sorry, but may I ask whos calling?

Asking about quantity and number
To ask how many?, use Ikutsu ():


How many apples are there?

To ask about the approximate number, the suffix KURAI or
GURAI is added ():


About how many apples are there?

Note that IKUTSU is also used as a polite alternative to the usual
NANSAI, meaning How old, with reference to peoples age, in
which case it is prefixed with o:

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How old are you?

To ask how much? or how long? with regard to time and
quantity, use Donokurai or Dorekurai (
):

How long does it take to get to school by bike?

How much Japanese do you understand?

Asking about price
To ask how much money?, use ikura ():


How much is this?

Asking about a reason
To ask the reason for something i.e. why?, use doshite:

Why are you studying Japanese?

There are two other less formal alternatives for why that you
should be familiar with. These are and .

Asking about manner or means
Douyatte is used to mean how?, or in what manner? (
):

How are you going to Japan?

How do the Japanese eat rice?

They eat using chopsticks.

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literally means how do you do something.
Dou can also be used by itself to mean how? ():


How was it?

Asking about time
Itsu is used to ask when? about the time of an action or event:

When are you going shopping?

When are you going to Japan next?

To ask about an approximate time, the suffix goro is added to itsu
():

About when are you returning to Osaka?

Asking about location
Doko is used to ask where something is, or where someone is
going ():

Where are you going?

Asking Which?
Dochira is used to ask which? when there are just two
alternatives ():

Which do you prefer, tennis or soccer?

If there are more than two choices, then dore is used, or dono if
there is a following noun (N):

Which of these chocolates is your favourite?
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Which book is Tanakas book?

Asking How?
To say how tall?, how hot?, etc., the adjective can be preceded
by donokurai or dorekurai ():

How expensive is it?

Asking What sort of?
Donna is used to ask, what sort of? ():

What kind of person is your father?


Interrogatives with and

Certain question words are combined with either or to create new
words. The three question words are (where), (who) and (what).

Question word
With With

Where

Somewhere
Neg V
Nowhere

Who

Somebody / someone
Neg V
No one / nobody

What

Something / Some
Neg V
Nothing / anything

Examples:

Are you going somewhere / anywhere this weekend?
(Notice that the usually particle of can be either included or left out when
using question word + )

Im not going anywhere this weekend.
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(Notice when using question word + the usual particles that would be
included (in this case ) is omitted and never included. Also, notice that the
verb is always in the negative)


Excuse me, is there anyone there?


I went to my friends house yesterday, but there was nobody there.

Are you doing anything / something for the summer holidays?


No, Im not doing anything.
`

Some

The word (something) when placed in front of a Noun takes on the
meaning of some:

For example:

Shall we buy some souvenirs?

Will you bring some wine later?