How Japanese Question Words Work Outside of Wh-questions

This is the last lesson in the interrogative sentence section. You have already completed how to make closed, open, and negative questions, and how to respond to them. Here, you will learn how to use question words outside of wh-questions.

Explanation for How Question Words Work Outside of Wh-questions

The number of the usages of question words in Japanese is less than English. Thus, it’s not a good idea if you try to translate something with related question words from English into Japanese. Let’s learn Japanese as it is.

Question Words + か

When you use question words with か, you can express unspecified things like “something” and “someone.” You can consider “question word + か” as one word. The parts of speech are determined by the original question words. Be careful. You cannot use adverbs for subjects, objects, and complements. Here are some examples.

Omission

When the particle が  or  を  is  placed after “question words + か,”  the particles are often omitted. Thus, you need to guess the functions based on the contexts. The following sentences are very natural.

Don’t be confused with the following examples. You need to pay attention to the omission especially when you make interrogative sentences. They look similar, however, the first example is a closed question while the second one is an open question.

Description

You can add descriptions with “question words + か” as you can do it in English, e.g. “to drink something cold.” The difference is that only nouns or noun phrases can be placed in Japanese.

Question Words + も + Negative Form

Note

*1 They can be used in affirmative sentences.

*2 This is used in negative sentences, but doesn’t indicate complete negation.

*3 This doesn’t make sense and is not said in Japanese.

*4 This works in a different function.

*5 These are uncommon expressions.

When you use question words with も, you can express complete negation with some exceptions as the note shows. Grammatically, you can consider the も as the focus particle も. Thus, when you use も with the particle が and を, you replace も with them.

Now, let’s think about cases where other particles such as に, へ, and と, are used. Unlike the above usages, you need to combine these particles with も.

Question Words in a Noun Clause

The structure of noun clauses with question words is like this: “question word + some elements + か + particle.” Elements can be placed before question words, but “か + particle” is always placed at the end. Note: when you connect nouns and na-adjectives with か, don’t attach だ or です. Here are more examples:

Again, when the particle が and を are placed in this formation, they are often omitted.

You can use the explanatory のだ in noun clauses. However, んだ cannot be used in this context even if you speak casually. The formality will be determined by the end of sentences.

Expressing “Whether” in Japanese

By placing …かどうか before particles, you can express “whether” in Japanese. The noun clauses indicate that there are two options and thus question words usually don’t appear. Take a look at some examples.

You can reword …かどうか with the sentence pattern:“…か…か.” In this pattern, you can use the related negative form or the antonyms. We can say that the following examples have virtually the same meaning.

Omission

The particle が and を are often omitted. It’s important to guess the functions based on the contexts.

In colloquial expressions, どうか can be omitted while the sentence pattern: “…か…か” cannot be omitted.

Summary

1. “Question words + か” expresses unspecified things, e.g. “something.”
2. “Question words + も” expresses complete negation with some exceptions.
3. “Question words + some elements + か + particle” makes a noun clause.
4. “…かどうか” and “…か…か” expresses “whether” in Japanese.

This is kind of a utilization of what you learned in the interrogative sentence section. We were unable to show examples for all of the question words due to the length of the article. However, if you understand the functions of question words, you can certainly compose proper sentences.