Learn how to use question words in Japanese
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| Jessi: Question Words. Hi everyone and welcome to appendix lesson #10. In this lesson, we are focusing on question words. |
| Naomi: It’s really important to be able to ask questions in Japanese. |
| Jessi: Yes that’s right. So make sure that you get these words down. Now, here is a tip about using these question words. When you say them by themselves with rising intonation, you are asking a question but this is a really casual way to ask the question. To make the question formal, you add ですか (desu ka) to the word. We will let you hear both ways of asking a question, casual way first followed by the formal way. |
| Naomi: Okay so let’s go through the list. |
| Jessi: What’s the first question word? |
| Naomi: なん (nan) or 何 (nani). These both mean what. |
| Jessi: Which one is used really depends on the context and the rule is rather complicated. So for this lesson, just know that they both mean what. |
| Naomi: なん (nan) or 何 (nani). |
| Jessi: The next word is |
| Naomi: いつ (itsu) |
| Jessi: This means when. In a casual conversation, you can ask |
| Naomi: いつ？ (itsu?) |
| Jessi: Or more formally |
| Naomi: いつですか？ (itsu desu ka?) |
| Jessi: The next word is |
| Naomi: どこ (doko) |
| Jessi: This means where. In a casual situation, you can ask |
| Naomi: どこ？ (doko?) |
| Jessi: Or more formally |
| Naomi: どこですか？ (doko desu ka?) |
| Jessi: The next word is |
| Naomi: どう (dō) |
| Jessi: This means how. In a casual situation, you can ask |
| Naomi: どう？ (dō?) |
| Jessi: Or more formally |
| Naomi: どうですか？ (dō desu ka?) |
| Jessi: Next word is |
| Naomi: 誰 (dare) |
| Jessi: This means who. In a casual situation, we can ask |
| Naomi: 誰？(dare?) |
| Jessi: Or more formally |
| Naomi: 誰ですか? (dare desu ka?) |
| Jessi: The next word is |
| Naomi: 誰の (dare no) |
| Jessi: This means whose as in whose is this. Here we just added the possessive particle の (no) to the word for who. In a casual situation, you can ask |
| Naomi: 誰の？ (dare no?) |
| Jessi: Or more formally |
| Naomi: 誰のですか？ (dare no desu ka?) |
| Jessi: The next word is |
| Naomi: どれ (dore) |
| Jessi: This word means which one. In a casual situation, you can ask |
| Naomi: どれ？ (dore?) |
| Jessi: Or more formally |
| Naomi: どれですか？ (dore desu ka?) |
| Jessi: The next words are |
| Naomi: なぜ (naze) |
| Jessi: And |
| Naomi: どうして (dōshite) |
| Jessi: These words both mean why. In a casual situation, you can ask |
| Naomi: なぜ ？(naze?) |
| Jessi: Or |
| Naomi: どうして？(dōshite?) |
| Jessi: In a more formal situation, you can ask |
| Naomi: なぜですか？ (naze desu ka?) |
| Jessi: Or |
| Naomi: どうしてですか？ (dōshite desu ka?) |
| Jessi: So, Naomi sensei, なぜ (naze) and どうして (dōshite) are the same, right? |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) Right, but I think どうして (dōshite) is more common in a conversation. |
| Jessi: Good to know. Okay, so now, let’s recap what we’ve learned so far. How do you say what? |
| Naomi: なん (nan) or 何 (nani) |
| Jessi: How do you say when |
| Naomi: いつ (itsu) |
| Jessi: How do you say where |
| Naomi: どこ (doko) |
| Jessi: How do you say who |
| Naomi: 誰 (dare) |
| Jessi: How do you say whose |
| Naomi: 誰の (dare no) |
| Jessi: How do you say why |
| Naomi: なぜ (naze) or どうして (dōshite) |
| Jessi: Okay. Next, we will introduce you to some question words that are useful when you are traveling in Japan such as how much or how many. When you want to ask the price of something, you use |
| Naomi: いくら (ikura) |
| Jessi: This means how much as in how much does it cost. In a casual situation, we can ask |
| Naomi: いくら？ (ikura?) |
| Jessi: Or more formally |
| Naomi: いくらですか？ (ikura desu ka?) |
| Jessi: When you want to ask how many things there are, you use |
| Naomi: いくつ (ikutsu) |
| Jessi: This means how many. In a casual situation, you can ask |
| Naomi: いくつ？ (ikutsu?) |
| Jessi: Or more formally |
| Naomi: いくつですか？ (ikutsu desu ka?) |
| Jessi: And in some cases いくつ？ (ikutsu?) or いくつですか？ (ikutsu desu ka?) means how old are you. |
| Naomi: あ、そうですね。(A, sō desu ne.) Right. |
| Jessi: All right. Well, we went over a lot of question words there. |
| Naomi: Did you get the hang of them? |
| Jessi: So just remember, to ask a question in a casual manner, you can say the word by itself with rising intonation. To ask it in a more polite manner, just add ですか (desu ka) to the end of it. |
| Naomi: Well, that’s all for this lesson. |
| Jessi: See you next time. |
| Naomi: じゃ、また。(Ja, mata.) |
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