Vocabulary
English
what
what’s the matter?
something
formal
casual
fine
to eat
masu (formal)
dict (casual)
to drink
masu (formal)
dict (casual)
romaji
nani
nani ka
nani-ka
nanka
kekkou-na
tabe-masu
taberu
nomi-masu
nomu
kana
なに
なにか
なにか
なんか
けっこうな
たべます
たべる
のみます
のむ
kanji
何
何か
何か
食べます
食べる
飲みます
飲む
- Words ending in -i and -na are i-adjectives and na-adjectives.
- Even though ‘nani ka’ and ‘nani-ka’ look the same in kanji and hiragana, they are not the same thing; ‘nani ka’ (two words) means ‘What’s the matter?’, while ‘nani-ka’ (one word) means ‘something’.
- Japanese teenagers use ‘nanka’, the casual version of ‘nani-ka’, in the same way that American teenagers use ‘like’ [Tae Kim].
Sample sentences
Won’t you eat something?
formal
nani-ka tabe-masen ka?
なにか たべませんか。
何か食べませんか。
casual
nanka tabe-nai?
なにか たべない?
なにか食べない?
Comments
The following comments explain some of the grammar in more detail.
Adjectives
kekkou-na – けっこうな
‘kekkou’ is a na-adjective that means ‘fine’, but the interpretation changes depending on the context:
- for positive contexts it means ‘Yes, it’s fine’, i.e., ‘go ahead’:
Is it ok (to pay) in dollars? Yes, it’s fine.
doru de i-i desu ka? hai, kekkou desu.
- For negative contexts it means ‘No, it’s fine (as it is, thank you)’, i.e., ‘No, thank you’:
Sake? No, I’m fine. (No, thank you)
o-sake? iie, kekkou desu.
Pronouns
nani – なに, 何
‘nani’ and ‘nan’ are the two basic forms of ‘what’; they have the same kanji, 何, which appears as part of many question words:
English
what?
where?
when?
what hour?
how many people?
by what means?
romaji
nani
doko
itsu
nan ji
nan nin
nan de
kana
なに
どこ
いつ
なんじ
なんにん
なんで
kanji
何
何処 (what place)
何時 (what time)
何時 (what hour)
何人 (what people?)
何で (what means?)
‘nan de’ means ‘by what means?’, e.g., ‘by car’, ‘by train’, ‘by foot’, etc. Very often we will find these question words written in hiragana instead of kanji.
By itself, ‘nani’ is the casual form of the most common question there is, i.e., ‘what is it?’
Politeness level
formal
casual
casual+
casual++
English
what is it?
what is it?
what is it?
what?
romaji
nan desu ka?
nan dai?
nan da?
nani?
Prefixes and suffixes
-ka – か
-ka is a suffix that we add to a question pronoun to get words that indicate that there is ‘some’ or ‘a little’ of that quantity, e.g.,
pronoun
nani (what?)
doko (where?)
itsu (when?)
dare (who?)
pronoun-ka
nani-ka
doko-ka
istu-ka
dare-ka
literal
some-what
some-where
some-when
some-who
meaning
something
somewhere
sometime
someone
And this is why ‘nani-ka’ means ‘something’.
Expressions
sou desu ne… – そうですね…
‘sou desu ne…’ is an expression where ‘ne’ is not playing the role of seeking agreement (ne?) nor providing confirmation (ne!), but instead it is a stalling expression (ne…); we use it to gain time while considering a reply, same as ‘err…’:
let me think…
sou desu ne…
そう ですね…
Two other common stalling expressions are:
let me see…, uhh…
errr…, um…
etto…
anou…
えっと…
あのう…