Saying "Which"

[Haruhi_Suzumiya]

How do you say "which"? Like in "Which ice cream would be good?"? I've been wondering about that. If anyone can answer that for me that would be great.

[maxiewawa]

I think what you're looking for is 'donna', or 'what kinda of'.

Donna aisu kuriimu ga ii ka na...
Which kind of ice cream would be good...

[wolfmaster]

what's the difference between donna and dore? I'm confused...

[Joey]

dore = which
donna = what type of

[nilfisq]

and then there is also "dono" as in

dono hon ga ii kanaa
I wonder which book should be good (newbie lesson 21)

[maxiewawa]

Sorry for the confusion.

Dono hon ga ii kanaaaaaaa
Which book is good....

In this example the person is at a bookshop, looking at books. He's wondering which book of ths books on the shelf are good.

Dore ga ii kanaaaaaaa
Which is good....

This is the same example with just a gramattical twist. Instead of wondering which book is good, he's omitted the word 'book'. Dono <noun> becomes dore.

So we can say

Dore? Which?

or

Dono <noun> Which <noun>?

[nilfisq]

Dono hon ga ii kanaaaaaaa

haha, they actually pronounce it like this! that's what makes japanese such a great language

thanks for the explanations

[wolfmaster]

So, if i want to ask my friend which hotel she's staying at, do i ask...

Donna hoteru ga imasu ka?

[Javizy]

So, if i want to ask my friend which hotel she's staying at, do i ask...

Donna hoteru ga imasu ka?

She'd most likely give a description of the hotel, since 'donna' means 'which kind'. If you wanted the name of the hotel, you should use 'dono'.

However, in spoken language, 'donna' is more often replaced with 'dou iu', which means exactly the same thing but is slightly easier to pronounce.

Also, the rest of the ko-so-a(-do) family have counterparts 'konna', 'sonna', 'anna', which similarly can be replaced with 'kou iu', 'sou iu', and 'aa iu'.

kou iu kurama ga ii n da yo - this sort of car is good!
sou iu hito wa baka da zo - those sort of people are idiots!
aa iu tokoro ni ikitai n da na - I want to go to that (faraway) kind of place!

I've never actually heard 'aa iu' though. There are various other uses of these, but if you're a beginner I wouldn't worry about them yet.

[fayewolf]

LOl, i'm glad I ask!!
So Dou iu hoteru ga imasu ka is okay?

I've heard of Dou iu in one of the lessons but i can't remember which one and how it was used.

very interesting.

Thank you!

[maxiewawa]

No, Dou iu hoteru ga imasuka is asking what kind of hotel there is. It's gramatically correct, but if you're asking your friend where he/she is staying, it's the wrong question.

Dono hoteru ni tomatte imasuka would be better.

[jkeyz15]

"dou iu" is similar to "donna"

Go with the example said above me^.

[Jason]

I've never actually heard 'aa iu' though.

I have. It does get used.

No, Dou iu hoteru ga imasuka is asking what kind of hotel there is. It's gramatically correct

No, it's not. Not unless the hotels are living and breathing.

A couple of quick notes about the "~nna" vs "~iu" series mentioned. ~iu means basically the same thing as their corresponding ~nna versions, but they're not the same thing. The ~nna series has other uses that don't carry over to ~iu. The ~nna series is also not that uncommon.

And one more small note. どれ = which (out of 3 or more). どちら = which (out of exactly 2).