How to Say What in Japanese: One Ending, Nothing Moves

Many languages, English among them, move a word to the front to ask a question. Japanese moves nothing, and the question word stands exactly where the answer will stand.

Here's the short answer to how to say “what” in Japanese, asked about lunch:

昼ご飯は何を食べましたかひるごはんはなにをたべましたか (hirugohanhananiwotabemashitaka)

What did you have for lunch?

The word is 何なに (nani). It takes the place the food will take in the reply, and か (ka) closes the sentence. Do not move 何なに (nani) to the front, because the front is not where the answer goes.

That one rule covers every question word in this field note. The harder part is choosing among the three words for “which.” The shape of the answer decides that too.

Use 何なに (nani) when the answer is still open and nothing has been ruled out. Once the question names the choices, 何なに (nani) does not fit. Two named options take どちら (dochira), and three or more take どれ (dore).

Start with the smallest question there is. Take a plain statement and put か (ka) on the very end. It is now a yes-or-no question, and the subject, the object, and the verb all stay where they were.

You're checking whether a colleague is off tomorrow afternoon:

あしたの午後は休みですかあしたのごごはやすみですか (ashitanogogohayasumidesuka)

Are you off tomorrow afternoon?

Take the か (ka) off, and you have the statement あしたの午後は休みですあしたのごごはやすみです (ashitanogogohayasumidesu), tomorrow afternoon is a day off. Put it back, and the same words in the same order are asking. In writing, か (ka) already marks the question, so a question mark is optional.

For anything past yes or no, add a question word. The word does not go to the front. It goes where the answer would go, and か (ka) stays on the end.

These are the Japanese question words you meet first, each in the shape you'll hear it:

Two words in that table do not stand alone. どんな (donna) and どの (dono) want a noun right after them, which is why their examples are a ticket and a train. どの (dono) also has two related words, どれ (dore) and どちら (dochira), that the table leaves out.

They get a section of their own below, because the shape of the answer picks the word. Wherever a row shows a whole question, it ends the same way, and only the word in front of the ending changes.

何なに (nani) is one word with two readings. On its own it is なに (nani). Before certain sounds it becomes なん (nan), which is why the first row of the table reads 何ですかなんですか (nandesuka).

Ask when a store opens, and the word comes right before the hour, so it takes the なん (nan) reading:

この店は何時に開きますかこのみせはなんじにあきますか (konomisehananjiniakimasuka)

What time does this store open?

The word that follows decides the reading, so the clock question is 何時なんじ (nanji), not なにじ (naniji). Two related words belong here too. 何かなにか (nanika) is something, and 何もなにも (nanimo) with a negative verb is nothing at all.

You'll also meet なん (nan) in counting questions, in front of a counter, the short word that says what kind of thing you are counting. That is the topic of the field note on numbers and counting.

The whole note rests on one rule. A question word stands in the spot the answer will fill, and you do not move it to the front. Ask where the ticket machine is, and どこ (doko) goes where the place name would go in the reply:

券売機はどこですかけんばいきはどこですか (kenbaikihadokodesuka)

Where is the ticket machine?

The habit from your own language is strong, and this is what it produces:

❌ どこ切符売り場ですかどこきっぷうりばですか (dokokippuuribadesuka)

⭕ 切符売り場はどこですかきっぷうりばはどこですか (kippuuribahadokodesuka)

The second works because どこ (doko) stays near the end, where the answer would be said. The first fails for one reason only: it moved the question word to the front.

If you find yourself opening a sentence with どこ (doko), say the answer to yourself first. The gap in the answer is where the question word goes.

“Who” and “when” work the same way. You are not building a new sentence shape for each of them. You are filling a different gap in the same one.

Ask about a face in a photo, and the question word stands where the name will stand:

写真のあの人はだれですかしゃしんのあのひとはだれですか (shashinnoanohitohadaredesuka)

Who is that person in the photo?

When you're not sure where a question word belongs, run one test. Say the answer first, in Japanese, and notice where the missing piece is.

Take the teacher's birthday, which you do not know. Does いつ (itsu) go at the front, at the very end after か (ka), or where the date itself would be said?

先生の誕生日はいつですかせんせいのたんじょうびはいつですか (senseinotanjoubihaitsudesuka)

When is the teacher's birthday?

The third. The date is said before です (desu), so that is where the question word stands, with か (ka) still closing the sentence. Particles (the small words after each noun) tell you what each word is doing, not its position.

English has one “which.” Japanese has three, and you do not choose by memorizing a rule for each one. You choose by picturing the reply before you speak.

If a noun follows, the word is どの (dono), as in どの電車どのでんしゃ (donodensha), which train. If nothing follows and you are picking one thing out of several, the word is どれ (dore). If the two options have already been named, the word is どちら (dochira).

Here's the whole choice in one view:

The middle row is the one that causes mistakes. Friends are sorting bags after a trip, and you ask which is theirs. Nothing follows the question word, so it has to be どれ (dore), and どの (dono) alone would still need a noun.

You can hear the difference when you answer. The reply is a bag, by itself, with no noun after it:

どれがあなたのかばんですか (doregaanatanokabandesuka)

Which one is your bag?

The last row is where two other question words get used by mistake. You are offering a drink, and there are exactly two:

❌ コーヒーとお茶、どこがいいですかコーヒーとおちゃ、どこがいいですか (koohiitoocha,dokogaiidesuka)

⭕ コーヒーとお茶、どちらがいいですかコーヒーとおちゃ、どちらがいいですか (koohiitoocha,dochiragaiidesuka)

どこ (doko) asks where, so it cannot ask which drink. The other wrong choice is 何なに (nani), and the reason it fails is more interesting:

❌ コーヒーと紅茶と、何が好きですかコーヒーとこうちゃと、なにがすきですか (koohiitokouchato,nanigasukidesuka)

⭕ コーヒーと紅茶と、どちらが好きですかコーヒーとこうちゃと、どちらがすきですか (koohiitokouchato,dochiragasukidesuka)

何なに (nani) opens the answer to anything at all. The question has already listed two things, so it has already excluded that. どちら (dochira) asks between two named things, and that is its job here.

Listing the two with と (to) is the closed list from the field note on saying “and.” Add a third option, and どちら (dochira) no longer fits. You are back to どれ (dore) for things, だれ (dare) for people, and どこ (doko) for places.

This is the pattern under every row of that table. You do not choose the word by looking at the question. You choose it by looking at what the answer will be: a noun, one of several, or one of two.

Almost every question so far has ended in ですか (desuka), and that is two pieces, not one. It is the polite です (desu) with か (ka) on the end.

Drop the です (desu), and the question is still a question, now in its plain form:

△ これはいくらか (korehaikuraka)

Plain か (ka) with no です (desu) is a blunt question, used mainly by men to close friends or people below them. To a clerk, keep です (desu). Here's the same price question with です (desu) back, asked about something on a shelf away from you both:

あれはいくらですか (arehaikuradesuka)

How much is that one over there?

That is all ですか (desuka) means when you see it glossed alone: the question ending, in its polite form.

In one kind of question, something else stays in place as well: the particle, the small word after the question word. Ask who is the tallest in a class, and the question word takes が (ga) in front of いちばん (ichiban):

クラスでだれがいちばん背が高いですかクラスでだれがいちばんせがたかいですか (kurasudedaregaichibansegatakaidesuka)

Who is the tallest in the class?

The answer echoes that が (ga). It names the person and keeps the particle the question used. Here's the same exchange at home, after someone asks who leaves earliest in the morning:

△ 兄はいちばん早いですあにはいちばんはやいです (anihaichibanhayaidesu)

⭕ 兄がいちばん早いですあにがいちばんはやいです (anigaichibanhayaidesu)

The first is correct Japanese, but it sounds like you changed the subject instead of answering. The second stays inside the question: same spot, same が (ga), and only the missing piece filled in. Whether は (ha) or が (ga) belongs in a sentence of your own is a different matter, and the field note on sentence structure covers it.

This brings the note back to where it opened. Nothing moved when you asked, so the answer has nowhere new to go. It returns to the same place, with the same が (ga), and fills the gap the question left.

One ending, a word standing where the answer will stand, and a choice made by picturing the answer first. If you then pick wrong between どれ (dore) and どちら (dochira), you will still be understood.

Not sure where the question word goes? Say the answer first, and put the question word in the gap.

Use どの (dono) before a noun, どれ (dore) for one of several, and どちら (dochira) for one of two.

The answer to a が (ga) question keeps that same が (ga).

It is 何ですかなんですか (nandesuka), the first row of the first table, written the way it sounds. 何なに (nani) takes its なん (nan) reading in front of です (desu), and か (ka) on the end makes it a question. The whole thing means “What is it?” so point at something and say it.

There is one word, 何なに (nani), with two readings rather than two words. Alone it is なに (nani), and before certain sounds it is なん (nan), as in 何時なんじ (nanji) and 何ですかなんですか (nandesuka). What changes from sentence to sentence is not the word but where it stands, and that is the spot the answer will take.

なに (nani), said alone, with nothing after it. On its own, the word keeps its full なに (nani) reading, so the drawn-out version and the plain one are the same word.

何なに (nani). Put it where the answer would go, leave the rest of the sentence as it is, and end with か (ka). The word stands where the answer will stand, and that is the whole of the grammar.

Inside Ukiyoe Japanese, the question ending has its own lesson. It holds the same table of question words, plus a check that asks you where 何時なんじ (nanji) belongs before it tells you. The lesson on pointing words ends with the どちら (dochira) rule, set against the どこ (doko) mistake it replaces.

Every sentence in both has been reviewed. Beside them is Sentence builder, a drill that has you put each piece where it belongs, with the verb at the end.

There's also a speaking scene where you put at least two questions to a conversation partner with this ending. It is the shortest route from reading about か (ka) to hearing it work.