Questions tagged [questions]
疑問文. Concerning the asking of questions in the Japanese language as opposed to making plain statements. Includes the various words and particles used in questions.
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How are Constructed Languages referred to?
(Very beginner Japanese speaker here, go easy on me.)
I understand that to get the name of a language, it is usually the name of the country it is associated with, then 語 appended to the end.
What ...
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What does ちょうどいっか mean here?
In the first bubble, the character comments that "We did a bunch (of the stuff we needed to do)".
Then in the second line as I understand he adds
冬までにほとんど 終わりそうだけど
Looks like we'll be done ...
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What kind of nuance does どうでしょうか have in this senence?
どうでしょうか
職業柄器用だとは思っていますが
In the very first panel, upon reading a report, the character comments that the guy has no particular ability.
To which the character replies
どうでしょうか
職業柄器用なほうだとは思っていますが
My ...
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"そのことですか" is this some kind of expression?
よかった。。。って言っていいもんかな
I wonder if it's alright to say "I'm glad"
何がです?
About what?
お前さんは何年追いかけた敵を討ったじゃない
You didn't kill the enemy that you chased for years (or you killed the enemy you ...
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Casually asking whether something particular is the reason
Up until now, I've been under the impression that it's acceptable in casual texting or speech to say ○○から？？ when you're asking whether ○○ is the reason for whatever the topic of conversation is.
For ...
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Is 分じゃない a specific meaning?
Character starts crying and says this:
"あれ なんだこれ。。。"
To which the other character replies this:
"今まで我慢してきた分じゃない?"
My reading of 今まで我慢してきた分 is "the amount you have endured ...
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Are questions ending in は polite or plain?
On my grammar textbook, there is a part about the possibility to ask a question with just the topic and は, for example:
お仕事は?
That can mean "what is your job?" or "how is work?".
...
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How is ではいけませんか used in this sentence?
My understanding is that the sentence was reverse so it's
あなたと私の出会いのように運命だから、(thought it may be wrong)
However I'm not sure how to take ではいけませんか?
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Asking what's in a container
I was playing around with Google translate to try to figure out how to ask what's in a container, and it suggested the following two sentences:
箱の中は何ですか
カートには何が入っていますか
So, firstly, why did it give a ...
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What does verb + 損 mean?
ただの殺され損ではないか
I'm stumbled on this meaning here. By context I can gather it seems to be akin as "Being killed is just a disadvantage, isn't it?" but why 殺され損?
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What does たい+くらいだもんな mean?
人煽るのはそんなに楽しいか
"Is that fun to instigate people?"
"Despite the fact people attempt to be kind/attempt to things kindly/etc"
まあそんなの必要ねえか
"Well that is not necessary"
...
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What is the use of ものでしょうか in this context? 「今から治療して間に合うものでしょうか？」
Upon being asked why she didn't bring her child to the hospital back then she replies:
今から治療して間に合うものでしょうか！？
My understanding from context is that she's saying time passed since the incident and ...
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The meaning of のか in a sentence that is not a question
俺はゆりこの自慢話をした。彼女がどれほど優しく、どれほど愛らしく、俺を想ってくれたのか。
二人は驚いたり、笑ったりしながら、話を聞いてくれた。
What does のか。add to this sentence? He's boosting about his girlfriend to other people. So I don't see why using のか。 at the end?
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Use of どんな with no following noun
そんなことはどうでもいいよ。『例のあの人』がどんなだったか覚えてると思う? (Japanese TL)
Never mind that, do you think he remembers what You-Know-Who looks like? (original Harry Potter text)
I'm confused at seeing どんな with no noun ...
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How to say [Can you buy this for me?] in polite Japanese
Usually I always said [注文してくれてできませんか」
When I ask someone to buy some item for me. But I always wonder if that sentence is right.
Especially if the one I ask is my 社長. So I wonder how to ask for ...
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Asking about invitation/desire in basic tense, vs. specific patterns?
When it comes to asking questions, specifically about invitation and want/desire, I've come across sentences that avoid using specific patterns (ませんか/ましょうか, or たい/ほしい), and just use basic future tense ...
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Understanding いかが in 「先生もお使いになってみたらいかがですか。」
Consider
先生もお使いになってみたらいかがですか。
Sensei, how about you try using this?
Questions:
The も at the end of 先生も indicates "Teacher, how about you also try using this", correct? (Meaning that ...
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か vs. のですか in Hypothetical Question Sentences
Consider
もしたくさんの遺産があったとしたらどのように使うのですか？
Say if it so happened that you had a lot of inheritance, how would you use it?
versus
仮に、お金が一億円あるとしたら、何に使いますか。
If you were to have 100 million yen for ...
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How to interpret phrase order and tense with two conditionals in one statement?
In the Japanese version of the FFX-2 song "1000 Words," there are two lyrics styled as questions:
行かないでと涙こぼしたら?
待てないよと肩を落としたら？
My translations are:
行かないでと涙こぼしたら？ - What if I shed a tear ...
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Asking questions using が?
Can someone explain why が is used here to ask a question, instead of か? If it is to be more polite, can both be used interchangeably?
Situation: A man is ordering something at a burger shop.
...
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What does じゃあ at the end of a sentence mean?
そろそろ学校に行く時間じゃあ？
Is it like ですか? Or like じゃん/じゃない?
I've thought it could be that じゃ that is the same as だ used by characters who are old, but this one is young.
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How should I ask for the company/country/school's location?
ミイちゃんのかいしゃはどちらですか
The above is asking about the company (name of company).
How should I ask for the company's location?
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「どこまで行くんだい？」 「どこまで行くんかい？」
Since だい usually follows sentences with an interrogative word, and かい occurs in polar questions, I thought this would be the most natural wording:
どこまで行くん(の)だい？
But apparently どこまで行くん(の)かい is also ...
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Can に乗る contain a place/direction and is it the same as [vehicle]で 行く?
In the Busuu course I'm taking I learned the word 乗る and that it means something like "take" or "ride". For that purpose I used the structure [vehicle]で 行く up until now.
I ...
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Using i-adjectives at the end of (Or really anywhere in...) a sentence?
For instance, if I wanted to ask if a food was tasty, I want to know all linguistic options that I have and, preferably, the nuances between them.
These are all the short, potentially appropriate ...
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Can I use both ましょう and ですか?
I want to ask someone a question as to whether they want to do something.
Would you like to play Minecraft on the computer?
Would this be written as
コンピューターでマインクラフトをあそびましょうか。
OR
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Why are some native Japanese words usually written in katakana? [duplicate]
Like ラク that supposedly means "at ease" (correct me if i'm wrong, i just learned this), why insted of writing it in Hiragana or Kanji they write it in Katakana? This is not the first ...
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Explanatory の/ん in questions with interrogatives: Two conflicting rules
I'm working through this grammar book, which goes into a lot of detail about the grammar of questions and when the explanatory の/ん needs to be included. On pg. 284, the book says that a question must ...
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How to use counter question word + か
In Tae Kim's grammar guide, it tell you that question word can be appended with か、も、でも to mean different things(誰か someone, 誰も everyone, 誰でも anyone).
Can the same be carried over to counters? For ...
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Trying to make sense of 私の国がオケを見たことについて悪い話をしないでください。そのすべての西洋私は私が嫌いな私は彼らが常に悪い国を与えるために嫌いを見つけるのが嫌い [closed]
I was watching a video about Hana Kimura's suicide. I was scrolling through the comments and I saw this comment:
私の国がオケを見たことについて悪い話をしないでください。そのすべての西洋私は私が嫌いな私は彼らが常に悪い国を与えるために嫌いを見つけるのが嫌い.
For ...
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Meaning of のか in this sentence?
The sentence is this one:
その音に反応したのか、わたしの耳に一つの声が届いた
I kinda understand the connotation that のか has in some sentences, but I just don't understand it in this particular one.
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How do you translate the world "layer" in Japanese? [closed]
Layer as in the ones used in digital art software like Adobe Photoshop, Clip Studio Paint, Manga Studio, etc.
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Can you use 誰(だれ) with animals?
Can you ask a pet's name in this way?
For example, この犬は誰ですか。
Who is this dog?
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What is the most natural way (or differences) to ask if someone wants to do something?
(Using the verb "飲む" as an example)
飲みたいですか？
飲みたくないですか？
飲むことが欲しいですか？
What are the differences between these forms? Also, is there a more natural way to ask if someone wants to do something?...
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Particle omission in embedded questions [duplicate]
Are there any rules or conventions on when to omit を (as in 1) or が (as in 2) when it comes to embedded questions?
この生物は何か教えてください。
どれがおいしいかまずいかさっぱりわかりません。
My gut feeling would be to generalize and ...
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Need to understand the use of どこ
I've just started learning Japanese. And these sentences from Minna No Nihongo N5 book lesson 3, are confusing me.
What's the name of your school?
Romanji: Gakku wa doko desu ka.
In my understanding,...
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の - questioning and confirmation
I learned the grammatical structure of の for questioning (and explaining) things a while ago, but the exact meaning and which gender uses it has kind of confused me.
Here are a few varied sentence I'd ...
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Trying to translate an SFX but the characters look confusing
I'm really bad at reading the characters when they're written in a different way, these three ones are the ones I think are in the highlight but I would like to be sure. m(_ _)m Someone kind enough to ...
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Can より be used in questions of comparison?
Reading through several learning resources, questions of comparison are always shown of the following type:
XとYと どちら・・・
and statements of comparison are always shown of the following type:
Xより Yのほう・...
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Interrogative/Counters with か、も、でも, but also with particles
I know that by attaching か、も、でも to the end of an interrogative word can form a new meaning, but if particles are also used, where should the position of each thing be?
Example:
Which day? いつの日？
Some ...
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Meaning of ''とね''
I was reading a novel and then I saw this following sentence:
''でも、まぁ草薙にはいろいろ迷惑かけてるし、なんか今日はサービスしてあげてもいいかなぁ、とね''
What's the function of とね?
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Understanding questions with ommited words
I'm trying to read an internet novel, but I got stuck on some questions with omitted words. The text and my partial translation is below. It's the very beginning of the novel, so it's all the context ...
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In order to survive: 生きていくために or 生き残るために? what is the diffence?
I am trying to translate the sentence: what are you willing to do to survive?
I ended up translating it as: 生き残るために何を喜んでするの？
Is this correct? Or have I botched my translation? The other way I ...
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is this そうなんだか a valid sentence?
If そうなんですか (sounandesuka) is formal, how come it's not often that I hear of そうなんだか (sounandaka) as casual version or maybe that I just don't hear enough? thanks.
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How to ask someone if it is okay to do something?
I often find myself wanting to ask if I can do something ie. "Is it okay if I ask you a question?" or "Can I switch seats with you?" Along those lines. I'm not sure if this is ...
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Does every question have to end in ga
I have seen some sentences that are just a subject and are intended questions. I know just saying "nani" still conveys the meaning of "what is this/that." Can this apply to saying ...
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Should interrogative pronouns come in the subject or in the predicate?
Should interrogative pronouns come in the subject or in the predicate? For example:
ここ は どこ です か – "Where is this place?"
どこ が ここ です か – does this mean the same?
うみ は どちら です か - "...
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Special か or basic か for making questions?
Is the か explained in the image below a "normal" question marker, like the one I learned when studying basic Japanese, or does it have some special properties?
This is from the TRY textbook for JLPT ...
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What is the proper form of a short question with an i-adjective vs. a na-adjective?
I have read that great answer about i-adjectives being predicates. How does it reflect in questions?
Say, I have a dialogue:
— Is your city a beautiful one?
— Yes, it is.
— Is it big?
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Context when answering questions
I am going through a Genki exercise (Genki 1, page 163) and there is a picture of a man, with questions on the side.
For example, "暇ですか".
Would this usually mean it is asking about the man or yourself?...
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