Learn how to make questions and question tags in Japanese
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Intro |
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| Michael: How are questions made in Japanese? |
| Risa: And what about question tags? |
| Michael: At JapanesePod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: Ichika is having a party. She asks Mark, her neighbor, |
| "Are you coming to tomorrow's party?" |
| Ichika Ishikawa: 明日のパーティーに来ますか。 (Ashita no pātī ni kimasu ka. ) |
| Dialogue |
| Ichika Ishikawa: 明日のパーティーに来ますか。 (Ashita no pātī ni kimasu ka. ) |
| Mark Lee: はい、行きます。 (Hai, ikimasu.) |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Ichika Ishikawa: 明日のパーティーに来ますか。 (Ashita no pātī ni kimasu ka. ) |
| Michael: "Are you coming to tomorrow's party?" |
| Mark Lee: はい、行きます。 (Hai, ikimasu.) |
| Michael: "Yes, I am." |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: In this lesson, we will be looking at how questions are made in Japanese. There are three different types of questions: yes or no questions, regular questions, and tag questions. In Japanese, when you ask a question that requires a yes or no answer, you have to add a special question tag to the sentence. It’s the question-marking particle, |
| Risa: か (ka) |
| Michael: In English, changing a simple sentence into a question involves changing the order of the words. In Japanese, the order of the words remains the same. Let’s take a look at an example: |
| Risa: エミさんはそこにいます。(Emi-san wa soko ni imasu.) |
| Michael: “Emi is there.” To turn this into a yes or no question, we simply add the question-marking particle at the end. |
| Risa: エミさんはそこにいますか 。(Emi-san wa soko ni imasu ka.) |
| Michael: “Is Emi there?” Notice that the intonation also rises when asking a question. |
| [Recall] |
| Michael: Let’s take a closer look at the dialogue. |
| Do you remember how Ichika asks "Are you coming to tomorrow's party?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Risa as Ichika Ishikawa: 明日のパーティーに来ますか。 (Ashita no pātī ni kimasu ka. ) |
| Michael: And do you remember how Mark replies "Yes, I am?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Risa as Mark Lee: はい、行きます。 (Hai, ikimasu.) |
| Michael: Also, in this case, we can see the application of the basic rules of forming a yes-or-no question in Japanese, which requires adding the question-marking particle, |
| Risa: か (ka) |
| Michael: to the end of the sentence. If we remove the question tag, we are left with a simple sentence: |
| Risa: 明日のパーティーに来ます。(Ashita no pātī ni kimasu.) |
| Michael: which can translate as “You're coming to tomorrow's party.” |
| Now, let's see how to form regular questions. You need to familiarize yourself with the basic Japanese question words. First is the word “what,” |
| Risa: なに (nani) or なん (nan) |
| Michael: Let's hear an example |
| Risa: 明日、何をしますか。(Ashita, nani o shimasu ka.) |
| Michael: which means "What are you going to do tomorrow?" Next is “who,” |
| Risa: だれ (dare), for example だれが来ますか。(Dare ga kimasu ka.) |
| Michael: meaning "Who is coming?" Our next question word is “where” or, |
| Risa: どこ (doko), for example どこに住んでいますか。(Doko ni sunde imasu ka.) |
| Michael: meaning "Where do you live?" Next up is “why” or |
| Risa: どうして(dōshite) for example, どうして来ませんか。(Dōshite kimasen ka.) |
| Michael: which means "Why don't you come?" Next up is "when" or |
| Risa: いつ (itsu), for example いつ出発しますか。(Itsu shuppatsu shimasu ka.) |
| Michael: meaning “When are you leaving?” Finally, we have “how” or |
| Risa: どう (dō) for example, パーティーはどうでしたか。(Pātī wa dō deshita ka.) |
| Michael: which means "How was the party?" As you can see, all these questions end with the question-marking particle |
| Risa: か (ka). |
| Michael: There's actually another question-marking particle and it's |
| Risa: の (no) |
| Michael: This sentence-ending particle is used when asking a colloquial question. Let’s see an example: |
| Risa: これは、おいしい。(Kore wa, oishii.) |
| Michael: “This is good-tasting.” To turn this into a colloquial question, we simply add the particle in question at the end. |
| Risa: これは、おいしいの？(Kore wa, oishii no?) |
| Michael: “Is this good-tasting?” Note: in the case of this particle, it's very important to raise the intonation to make it clear it's a question; otherwise, it would sound like a statement. |
| Michael: Let’s discuss now how tag questions work in Japanese. There is a particle you need to be specifically familiar with when it comes to forming tag questions in Japanese and that's |
| Risa: ね (ne). |
| Michael: This is a sentence ending particle used to seek confirmation regarding a topic of mutual knowledge. Here’s an example of how it’s used: |
| Risa: これはおいしいですね。(Kore wa oishii desu ne.) |
| Michael: “This is delicious, isn't it?” The sentence ending particle |
| Risa: ね (ne). |
| Michael: is often paired with another particle to add the meaning “don’t you agree” or “am I right” in a sentence, in order to seek confirmation about a statement. The particle is |
| Risa: よ (yo). Used together, it becomes よね (yo ne). |
| Michael: Let’s see this pair in action: |
| Risa: パーティーは5時からですよね。(Pātī wa go-ji kara desu yo ne.) |
| Michael: “The party starts at 5, am I right?” |
| [Summary] |
| Michael: In this lesson, you learned how to form regular questions in Japanese using some question particles. These are the particles, |
| Risa: か (ka) |
| Michael: and |
| Risa: の (no). |
| Michael: You also learned how to form tag questions in Japanese, and this is with the help of the particle, |
| Risa: ね (ne), |
| Michael: or the pair |
| Risa: よね (yo ne). |
| Practice Section |
| Michael: Let's review. Respond to the prompts by speaking aloud. Then, repeat after the native speaker focusing on pronunciation. |
| Do you remember how Ichika asks "Are you coming to tomorrow's party?" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Risa as Ichika Ishikawa: 明日のパーティーに来ますか。 (Ashita no pātī ni kimasu ka. ) |
| Michael: Listen again and repeat. |
| Risa as Ichika Ishikawa: 明日のパーティーに来ますか。 (Ashita no pātī ni kimasu ka. ) |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Risa as Ichika Ishikawa: 明日のパーティーに来ますか。 (Ashita no pātī ni kimasu ka. ) |
| Michael: And do you remember how Mark answers "Yes, I am?" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Risa as Mark Lee: はい、行きます。 (Hai, ikimasu.) |
| Michael: Listen again and repeat. |
| Risa as Mark Lee: はい、行きます。 (Hai, ikimasu.) |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Risa as Mark Lee: はい、行きます。 (Hai, ikimasu.) |
| Expansion |
| Michael: You’ve probably already noticed that Japanese rarely uses the "question mark," or |
| Risa: 疑問符 (gimonfu). |
| Michael: Most of the time, the "period," or in Japanese, |
| Risa: 句点 (kuten) |
| Michael: is used even in interrogative sentences. That’s because Japanese already has a grammar-based marker, which, as we already know, is the particle, |
| Risa: か (ka). |
| Michael: The presence of this particle indicates that you’re making an inquiry, which means that adding a question mark is redundant. This doesn’t mean that Japanese grammar doesn’t make use of the question mark. In informal writing, interrogative sentences are ended with a question mark, and that’s because the rules are different. In formal writing, however, the question mark is not necessary. |
| In the same manner, during a conversation, it's common to drop the particle, |
| Risa: か (ka) |
| Michael: and replace it with a questioning tone instead. |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We’re here to answer them! |
| Risa: またね！ (Mata ne!) |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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