なんか usage

[josiah]

Most of my japanese friends use this word alot, i mean
例えば、なんか寒い、なんかおいしいとか。。。
when i asked them, they said u can use it with anything, like we use the word 'kinda'
so i just want to clarify if this is correct or not and the correct way to use it.
ta!

[Psy]

Pretty much. It does have its grammatical functions, but it along with ね are pretty well the Japanese versions of "like," and "you know." Throw 'em in there and make articulate adults everywhere squirm.

[jemstone]

is it like かな where you can throw in at the end of sentences to mean "i wonder" (whatever the whole sentence was talking about)?

[Jason]

is it like かな where you can throw in at the end of sentences to mean "i wonder" (whatever the whole sentence was talking about)?

No, not really. かな adds a pretty strong sense of "I wonder" to the entire sentence like you said. It expresses fairly strong uncertainty on your part about whether what you're talking about is true or not.

なんか is very different. For one thing, it's really hard to pin down a meaning on it. It's meaning changes depending on the context, but in general it adds a mild sense of uncertainty usually to a particular part of the sentence (as opposed to かな which covers the entire sentence).

-なんか嫌な予感が。。。 = "Somehow I have a bad feeling about this..."

-なんか食べてくんない？ = "Ya wanna grab something to eat?" (extremely casual)

-お前なんか勝てる訳ねえだろう！ = "Someone like you doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell to win!"

[jemstone]

ahhh! thank you for the explanation!