Japanese Wh-questions: 何, どの, 誰・どなた, どこ, and どっち・どちら

Last time, you learned Japanese demonstratives: これ, それ, あれ, and どれ like “どれが寿司すしですか (Which one is Sushi)？ これが寿司すしです (This one is Sushi).” You can think of these four words as one group, where どれ is a question word, and the others are its counterparts. In this lesson, you will learn other question words with their counterparts.

Japanese Wh-questions with Japanese Demonstratives: こそあど

In English, you can use “this” as both a pronoun and a determiner: “This is good,” and “This hotel is good.” In Japanese, you have to modify the form of demonstratives: “これはいい,” and “このホテルはいい.” You can consider the first hiragana as a base and change the suffixes. Each form has its related question words.

That’s simple, isn’t it? There are just two irregular pronunciations in the あ column. The concept, proper usages being determined by the distance between objects and speakers or listeners, remains the same. Here, we will focus on pronouns and determiners. You will learn proadverbs and attributes in the next lesson.

何なに (What), 誰だれ・どちら (Who), and どの (Which) with れ-group and の-group

れ-group: Pronoun (Thing)

This is what you learned in the previous lesson. By replacing a demonstrative (such as これ) with its related question word (such as どれ), you can make a wh-question with the identifier particle が. Then, what should you do if you do not know what an object is and want to ask, “What is this one?” This is where you use 何.

何 （なに・なん）: What

何 is translated as “what” in English and replaces nouns. Comparing the original example with the above one, 日に本ほん語ごの本ほん was replaced by 何. 何 can be pronounced as なに or なん. The grammatical rule is that it is always pronounced as なん if the letter after 何 is part of the Ta line (た ち つ て と), Da line (だ ぢ づ で ど), or Na line (な に ぬ ね の). Otherwise, you always pronounce 何 as なに.

What if you know it is a book, but do not know what book it is? You can also ask such a specific question. Here, only 日に本ほん語ご has been replaced by 何. You can figure out the meaning of a whole sentence by looking at the trailing particles. And also please pay attention to the presence of subjects. With the last two examples below, the subjects (such as “私わたしたちは”) are omitted.

If there is a noun with a suffix, you can ask a more specific question by replacing only the noun like the above example, i.e. 日に本ほん has been replaced by 何. When used like this, 何 is always pronounced as なに except when used with 曜よう日び (day of the week) .

の-group: Determiner

The concept of Japanese determiners is the same as in English. The function is to specify generic nouns, e.g. “a book” vs. “this book.” の-group is always placed before nouns. Unlike れ-group, you can use this for people as well as things.

There are other groups to describe people, though the two basically express directions. Please choose the group that suits your needs. Here are more examples

どの: Which…

どの is the question word which relates to the determiners and thus there is a sense to identify something. However, the identifier particle が appears only when question words are used as a subject. Question words, which include どの, can be used in various parts of a sentence. Again, subjects can be omitted in order to be more natural.

誰だれ・どなた: Who

誰だれ is a neutral word while どなた is a polite word. Both of them have the same meaning and can be translated as “who” in English. They are used in place of words that indicate people. Just like with other question words, please focus on the particles’ functions to understand the meaning of the whole sentence.

どこ (Where) and どっち・どちら (Which Direction) with こ-group and っち・ちら-group

こ-group: Pronoun (Location)

Just like れ-group which is the pronoun for things, こ-group is the one for locations. You can use these in place of words which indicate locations.

どこ: Where

どこ is the question word related to pronouns for locations, and corresponds to “where” in English. However, while “where” can only be used for actual places, どこ can be used for “points” and “parts”, too.

っち・ちら-group: Pronoun (Direction)

っち-group is casual while ちら-group is polite, though both of them have the same meaning. These groups have two functions. The first is to indicate direction, as the above shows. The second is to express places where the speakers or listeners are when you have a conversation.

With this function, こっち・こちら indicate the speaker’s place, そっち・そちら indicate the listener’s place and あっち・あちら indicate the third person’s place.

どっち・どちら: Which Direction

どっち and どちら are the question words related to pronouns for directions. There are two main usages. The first is to ask for directions.

The second is that どっち and どちら can actually be used to express “which one” like どれ and どの.

One important point here is that they imply there are just two options. If you have more than two options, you have to use どれ for things or どの + suffixes like どの人 for people.

Summary

1. Pronouns are replaced with nouns
2. Determiners are placed before nouns
3. Question words can appear in any part in a sentence
4. Particles are the key to figuring out meanings
5. Subjects are often omitted

In this lesson, you have learned a lot of vocabulary. However, if you look at the structures, they are very similar. If you understand the above, you can easily figure out the meanings of sentences. Next, you will learn the rest of the demonstratives: attributes and proadverbs.