Japanese question words

Now, this blog isn't dedicated to Japanese but I like to use it to express my tips on learning and to share what I've learnt. 

Questions will generally end with ka か. Think か as a question mark. You can turn any statement into a question by adding か at the end.


あなたは 日本人 です 
anata wa nihonjin desu. 
You are Japanese

Now, by adding か we can turn it into a question. 


あなたは 日本人 です か？ 
anata wa nihonjin desu ka? 
Are you Japanese?



Specific question words:

なに or なん*
Nani/nan
What?


なん です か？ 
nan desu ka? 
What is it?
なんじ です か？ 
nan ji desu ka? 
What time is it?
---------------------------------------

どこ 
Doko
Where?

どこ です か？ 
Doko desu ka? 
Where is it?
___は どこ です か？ 
eki wa doko desu ka? 
Where is the ___? 
--------------------------------------

どなた or だれ 
Donata/Dare
Who (formal)/Who(informal)

だれ です か？ 
dare desu ka? 
Who is it?
かれは だれ です か？ 
kare wa dare desu ka? 
Who is he?
-------------------------------------


どちら or どれ
Dochira/dare
Which?
--------------------------------

どのように
Donoyouni
How?

------------------------------------
いつ 
Itsu
When?

いつ です か？ 
itsu desu ka? 
When is it?
いつ いきます か？ 
itsu ikimasu ka? 
When are you going?
-----------------------------------
どうして or なんで or なぜ
doushite/nande/naze
Why?
----------------------------------
いくら
Ikura
How much?

いくら ですか？
Ikura desu ka?
How much is it? 

いくつ
Ikutsu
How many?

Halloween is over :c

This was my halloween costume. I was quite happy with it. As you can see, I have an ice-cream headband. I'm head to toe in pink sweet lolita. My outfit was nominated for best Halloween costume xD but every day is Halloween with me...

LOL. Yes, my friends had a real kick out of it. Me holding gloomy bear with Matthew trying to lick my ice cream D:

Half of my face is smudged with red lipstick and half is stitched up with black eyeliner.  Half of me is scarred and permanently broken. The other half is in pain and bleeding. I just thought it was an interesting concept. I had black eye shadow on and used black gel eyeliner on the corners of my eyes.This is a wig, btw. Plus add the sweet doll aesthetic and you have something more. 

So many people in my school dressed up which wasn't expected due to my school's reserved nature. Quite awesome costumes, might I add. From left to right: Me, rabbit, Tony Stark, ?, Morph, Pippin long stockings, a cheetah. I am not quite sure. These were just some of the nominees. There were teachers who dressed up as rabbits, zombies, Jack Sparrow... oh my god. It was just awesome. I spent pretty much my study period just taking photos with friends and messing about.

More Japanese in your life

Want to use Japanese more in your life? It'd be easier to catch along to things and it'd be useful to know the names of every day objects. This post won't focus on the cultural side (so I won't be telling you to use chopsticks more) but on the linguistic side instead.

Some tips:

• Replace your labels in Japanese
• Subscribe to those daily vocabulary newsletters. Click here
• Change your social networking site (fb?) to Japanese
• Change your phone language to Japanese
• Memorise one new word/phrase a day and try to incorporate it in your conversations
• Read, watch anything with Japanese in it (manga! anime!)
• Read and translate Japanese children's books
• Buy from Japanese brands more often (Daiso)