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

Ask a question in English and something moves. Where is the station? The question word jumps to the front, and the verb goes with it. Japanese asks a question without moving a word. It puts か (ka) on the end of a statement and leaves everything else where it was.

So here's the short answer to how to say what in Japanese. The word is 何なに (nani), and where it goes is the part that trips people up. It stands exactly where the answer will stand. Ask what someone ate, and 何なに (nani) takes the place the food will take in the reply. Nothing else in the sentence moves.

That one habit runs through every question word in this field note, and it's why the words themselves are the easy part. The harder part is choosing between the ones English lumps together under which. Even that turns out to follow from the answer: whether it could be anything, or one of several, or one of two you've already named, decides which word you ask with.

There's a number worth keeping in view from the start. One ending, and the count of words that move is zero. Everything that follows is that fact, seen from different angles.

Start with the smallest question there is. Take a plain statement, put か (ka) on the very end, and it's now a yes-or-no question. 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're left with 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, you add a question word, and here the habit from the opening does its work. The word doesn't go to the front. It goes where the answer would go, and the 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 don't 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 rather than ですか (desuka). And どの (dono) has two relatives the table leaves out. They get a section of their own, because choosing among them is where the shape of the answer, not the question, picks the word. You'll also notice that wherever a row asks a whole question, it ends the same way. The ending hasn't changed; only the word in front of it has.

何なに (nani) is one word that's read two ways. On its own it's なに (nani), and before certain sounds it turns into なん (nan), which is why the clock question is 何時なんじ (nanji) rather than なにじ (naniji), and why the first row of the table reads 何ですかなんですか (nandesuka). Ask a friend what they had for lunch, and the word stands on its own, so it keeps the full reading:

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?

Same word, and what follows it decides the reading. Two relatives are worth picking up at the same time: 何かなにか (nanika) is something, and 何もなにも (nanimo) with a negative verb is nothing at all. Another place you'll meet なん (nan) is in counting questions, where it goes in front of a counter to ask how many, and that's the territory of the field note on numbers and counting.

Here's the rule the whole note turns on. A question word stands in the spot the answer will fill, and you don't 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 English habit is strong, and this is what it produces when you bring it along:

❌ 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 dragged the question word to the front. Not a word changed. Only the position did, and the position is the whole difference. If you catch yourself opening a sentence with どこ (doko), that's the habit showing, and the fix is to say the answer to yourself first.

Who and when go the same way. You're not building a new sentence shape for each of them; you're filling a different gap in the same one. Ask about a face in a photo, or a date on the calendar, and the question word stands where the name or the date 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?

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?

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 a shop that opens at some hour you don't know. Does 何時なんじ (nanji) go at the front, before この店このみせ (konomise)? At the very end, after か (ka)? Or in the place where the time itself would be said?

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 third. The time is said before the verb, so that's where the question word stands, with か (ka) still closing the sentence. If you're wondering how the sentence can afford this, the short version is that particles, not positions, tell you what each word is doing. The full account of that system is the field note on sentence structure.

English has one which. Japanese has three, and the way to choose isn't to memorize a rule for each one. It's to look at the shape of the answer you're expecting, so picture the reply before you open your mouth.

If a noun follows, the word is どの (dono): どの電車どのでんしゃ (donodensha), which train. If nothing follows and you're 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 catches people. 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) on its own would be left waiting for a noun. You can hear the difference if you try to 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 tend to get borrowed by mistake. You're 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 can't ask which drink. The other borrowed word 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 just listed two things, so it has ruled that out itself. どちら (dochira) asks between two named things, and that's the job it's doing here. Listing the two with と (to) is the closed list from the field note on saying and, doing its plainest work. Add a third option and どちら (dochira) is out: you're back to どれ (dore) for things, だれ (dare) for people, どこ (doko) for places.

Which is the pattern under every row of that table. You don't 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, and the question word is whichever one leaves exactly that much room.

Almost every question so far has ended in ですか (desuka), and that's two pieces rather than one: the polite です (desu) with か (ka) on the end. Drop the です (desu) and the question is still a question, just a plain-form one, fine in writing but blunt when you say it to a clerk:

❌ これはいくらか (korehaikuraka)

Put です (desu) back and it's fit for a shop. Here's the same price question, 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?

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

In one kind of question, something else stays put as well: the particle. Ask who's 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's out of the door 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. It just 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 you're starting from scratch is a different matter, and the field note on sentence structure takes it up.

Which brings the note back to where it opened. Nothing moved when you asked, so the answer has nowhere new to go. It comes back to the same place, with the same が (ga), and fills the gap the question left. That's the whole of it: one ending, a word standing where the answer will stand, and a choice of word made by picturing the answer first. Get the ending on and the word in the right spot, and if you then pick wrong between どれ (dore) and どちら (dochira), that's the kind of slip that gets understood anyway.

It's 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, so the whole thing means what is it. Point at something and say it, and you've asked.

There's one word, 何なに (nani), with two readings rather than two words. Alone it's なに (nani); before certain sounds it's 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 isn't the word but where it stands, and that's the same spot the answer will take.

なに (nani), said on its own, with nothing after it. Alone is exactly where 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's the whole of the grammar.

Inside Ukiyoe Japanese, the question ending has its own lesson, and 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 holds the どちら (dochira) rule as its last line, 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, which is the nothing-moves habit practiced one sentence at a time. There's also a speaking scene where your job is to put at least two questions to a conversation partner with this ending, which is the shortest route from reading about か (ka) to hearing it work.