- Nuance Ninja
Messing with か, Part I
NikoWe've seen the particle か already, yeah? We put it onto the end of formal questions:
美味しいですか？
おいしい です か？
Is it good?
一緒に行きませんか？
いっしょ に いきません か？
Would you like to go together?
か has a number of other uses, however.
For example, look at what happens when we add か to the following question words:
何 → 何か
なに → なにか
what → something
誰 → 誰か
だれ → だれか
who → someone
いつ → いつか
when → sometime; someday
どこ → どこか
where → somewhere
I know you're just itching to see these in full sentences...
何か飲みますか？
なにか のみます か？
Would you like something to drink?
Note that なにか is commonly pronounced なんか in casual language:
なんか飲む？
なんか のむ？
Do you want something to drink?
いつかアイスランドに行きたい。
いつか アイスランド に いきたい。
I'd like to go to Iceland someday.
どこかにあるはず。
どこか に ある はず。
It should be (around here) somewhere.
はず(だ), meaning something like "should be," is a grammar point we'll cover in one of our JLPT lessons.
Similar to how なにか can become なんか in casual language, どこか can become どっか：
どっかにあるはず。
どっか に ある はず。
It should be (around here) somewhere.
お母さん、誰か来たよ。
おかあさん、 だれか きた よ。
Mom, someone's here.
I'm hoping that the changes made by か in the words listed above aren't too hard to understand... because I'm about to make things a bit more confusing.
The thing is, か does not necessarily change question words in the ways listed above. There are times when か simply appears beside these words but is not changing their meaning.
An example will explain better than I can:
あの人、誰か知ってる？
あの ひと、 だれ か しってる？
Do you know who that person is?
Why doesn't the か in the sentence above turn 誰 (だれ // who) into 誰か (だれか // someone)?
The reason is that か is marking the entire phrase before it as a question. To put it another way, か is being used to mark a noun phrase, somewhat like we saw の doing in an earlier lesson.
In the next lesson, we'll look at a few more examples of this use of か.
Niko
