- Nuance Ninja
Messing with か, Part II
NikoAs mentioned in the last lesson, one use of か is marking noun phrases (that are questions). For example, we saw this sentence:
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?
The embedded question in that sentence is:
あの人、誰？
あの ひと、 だれ？
Who's that person?
Then we add the particle か, which makes the above question into a noun phrase:
あの人、誰か
あの ひと、 だれ か
who that person is
Finally, we add 知ってる？ (しってる？ // Do you know?) — literally, "are knowing?" — so that we can ask about this noun phrase:
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?
Let's look at another example...
パスポートどこにしまったか忘れちゃった。
パスポート どこ に しまった か わすれちゃった。
I can't remember where I put my passport.
We'll talk a lot more about this ～ ちゃった ending in other lessons.
And another one...
どうやって作るか知ってる？
どうやって つくる か しってる？
Do you know how to make it?
Let's say that I'm on the phone with a mutual friend of ours, and you want me to ask if she can come to our party tomorrow. You say...
明日来れるか聞いてみて。
あした これる か きいて みて。
Ask if she can come tomorrow.
～ てみる is an ending that means something along the lines of "try to ~." We'll have a few lessons on this in the future.
Dropping the ら in Possibility Form |
Is all of this grammar making you nauseous?
Sorry. At the very least, take comfort in the fact that the rollercoaster ride of learning Japanese makes all of us dizzy from time to time.
Niko
