The sentence 何と言ったら良いか分かりません
means "I don't know what I should say."
But what is the literal translation of this sentence? What is the purpose of the か
in 良いか
?
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Sign up to join this communityThe sentence 何と言ったら良いか分かりません
means "I don't know what I should say."
But what is the literal translation of this sentence? What is the purpose of the か
in 良いか
?
you can think of it like:
What would be right to say? I don't know
何と言ったら良いか分かりません
What to say... / good? / I don't know
the か would supply the question mark in my literal translation above.
か indicates a question. In English, questions in the main clause will be indicated by inverting the auxiliary before the clause. The addition of か in Japanese corresponds to that, but in Japanese, か is added regardless of main or embedded clause.