Help with this sentence...

[timothy.oconnor_497415]

Ok, so I've been trying to study Japanese for a few months now, but I've had to give up classes for a while due to work. I've signed up to the site to keep my meagre skills up, But when I left my old sensei gave me some home work, and I'm pretty lost

I don't know how to enter kana here, so I'll just use Romaji

I need to put the right particle in this sentence:

Nan ____ kono sakana ______ kirimasu ka

I understand this to mean something along the lines of: what ____ cut that fish?

I'm sure there needs to be an 'o' between fish and cut, but I'm lost about what should go after 'nan'

[timothy.oconnor_497415]

I guess I should add I think the answer is:

Nan de kono sakana o kirimasu ka

[thegooseking]

The particles are right, yes, but I think the sentence is a bit confusing.

Nan de is a term meaning "why..." So that would be "Why do you cut this fish?" It can also mean "By what means do you cut this fish", but it's far more common for it to mean "why..."

On the other hand, nani de would always translate as "With what do you cut this fish?"

The tricky thing is, in kanji, both nan de and nani de are written the same: 何で. So, if you see it written, you have to rely on context to figure out which one is meant.

小狼

[community.japanese]

Hello小狼　さん、
Thank you for the comment.
timothy.oconnor san,
Nan de kono sakana o kirimasu ka is correct.
Nan de also means ‘by means of’.
Therefore, this sentence meaning should be ‘what type of tool would you use to cut the fish?’.
Yuki 由紀
Team JapanesePod101.com