LearnJapanese Tae Kim's Guide to Learning Japanese




Phrasing questions

Posted by Tae Kim

When we want to talk about a question in a larger sentence, we can treat the sentence as a phrase by using the 「か」 question marker.

Example

  1. 田中さんはいつ来る、分かりますか。
    Do (you) know when Tanaka-san is coming?
  2. 来年、日本に留学しに行く、悩んでいる。
    (I'm) agonizing whether I should go to Japan next year for study abroad.

When it's a yes/no question, you can append an optional 「どうか」 to represent the other choice.

Example

  1. 悩む 【なや・む】 - to be troubled over something, to agonize over a decision
  2. 留学 【りゅう・がく】 - study abroad
  1. 田中さんは、明日来るかどうか、分かりますか。
    Do (you) know whether Tanaka-san is coming tomorrow or not?
  2. 来年、日本に留学しに行くかどうか、悩んでいる。
    (I'm) agonizing whether I should go to Japan next year for study abroad or not.
  3. 日本に行きたいかどうか、分かりません。
    Whether (I) want to go to Japan or not, (I) don't know.

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