Questions


Questions are easy to make in Japanese. All you have to do to form a yes-no question is add the sentence-end postposition か that you learned in the last lesson to the end of the sentence.
Vocab

あなた (anata) = you
これ (kore) = this (one)
この (kono) = this... (put right before a noun as a modifier)
あなたは　すしを　たべる。
Anata wa sushi o taberu.
You eat sushi.

あなたは　すしを　たべる　か。
Anata wa sushi o taberu ka.
Do you eat sushi?

Notice the Japanese question doesn't have a question mark at the end. There's just no need for it when you have か at the end.

When you're original statement ends in the word だ、 the postposition か replaces it. However, other forms such as です (desu) and だった (datta) are not replaced and か is added after them as normal.

これは さけだ。
Kore wa sake da.
This is sake.

これは　さけ　か。
Kore wa sake ka.
Is this sake?

これは　さけです　か。
Kore wa sake desu ka.
Is this sake (polite)?

In plain mode questions, though, か sounds a little rough. "Sounds rough" just means that it is used mostly by men in informal situations. So, unless you want to sound rough, simply remove the か and instead rely on their tones of voice alone to show it's a question. If the question ends in だ、 the だ is still removed. However, using か in polite mode is perfectly acceptable and does not sound rough.

すしは　おいしい？
Sushi wa oishii?
Is sushi good?

これは　さけ？
Kore wa sake?
Is this rice wine?

To reply to a yes-no question, you can use one of Japanese's many words for "yes" or "no." これは　すしですか。
Kore wa sushi desu ka? Is this sushi?

はい。
Hai.
Yes.

これは　みず？
Kore wa mizu?
Is this water?

いや、さけだ　よ。
Iya, sake da yo.
No, this is sake.

* Notice the use of よ here, too, which is contradicting the idea of "this being water."

There can be confusion from negative questions, though, because answering either yes or no can mean either way.

あなたは　りんごを　たべません　か。
Anata wa ringo o tabemasen ka.
Do you eat apples?

English-way response
はい　（わたしは　りんごを　たべます）
Hai (watashi wa ringo o tabemasu)
Yes (I eat apples).

Traditional Japanese response
はい　（わたしは　りんごを　たべません）
Hai (watashi wa ringo o tabemasen)
Yes (I do not eat apples)

As you can see, just saying はい or いいえ does not indicate what you mean very well. The best way to answer a negative quesiton is to reply with a full sentence or saying either "yes" or "no" followed by a full sentence responce (like the ones in parenthesis above).

Also, remember that you can save time by omitting words that appeared in the original question from your answer.

この　ねこは　ちいさい　ね。
Kono neko wa chiisai ne.
Isn't this cat small.

はい、ちいさい。
Hai, chiisai.
Yes (he) is very small.

Besides yes-no questions, you can have interrogative questions. In additon to the postposition か、 there will also be a question word. Unlike in English, though, the question word doesn't always come first in the sentence. Here are some common question words. Like all nouns, question words are followed by postpositions. The only exception is that when a question word is the subject of the sentence, you use the postposition が (ga) instead of は、 and in the response to that, the answer word is also followed by が (ga). I will explain this change in the next lesson.

これは　なんです　か。
Kore wa nan desu ka.
What is this?

すしです。
Sushi desu.
(It) is sushi.

あなたは　あした　どこへ　いく　か。
Anata wa ashita doko e iku ka.
Where are you going tomarow.

* Since this is a rough way to ask a question, this would probably be spoken by a male to his peer.

プールへ　いく。
PUURU e iku.
(I) am going to go to the pool.

あの　ひとは　だれ？
Ano hito wa dare?
Who is that?

* To be honest, even though I have said "ano hito" means "he" or "she" in Japanese, it actually means "that person (over there)." But you know now from last chapter that "he" and "she" usually don't need to be translated. Here, of course, the sentence would be confusing without it.

すずきさん　です。
Suzuki-san desu.
(It's) Mrs. Suzuki.

だれが　あなたの　せんせい？
Dare ga anata no sensei?
Who is your teacher?

* Notice how だれ is followed by が since it's a question word.

くらたさんが　せんせいだ。
Kurata-san ga sensei da.
Mr. Kurata is my teacher.

* Notice how くらたさん is followed by が since it is the answer word to だれ。

One more thing that goes along with both questions and omitting words. Most people don't realise this, but it is very rare to use "you" as the subject of an affirmative sentence and very rare to use "I" as the subject in questions. So if someone comes up to you and says どこに　いって　いますか (doko ni itte imasu ka), it probably doesn't mean "where am I going" and unless you have been talking about a third person, the obvious translation is "where are you going?"

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