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
- Words ending in -i and -na are i-adjectives and na-adjectives.
- Even though ‘nani ka’ and ‘nani-ka’ look the same in 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。
casual
nanka tabe-nai?
なにか たべない?
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.
For a casual twist of the use of ‘kekkou’, it translates exactly to ‘pretty’, when we use it to emphasize an i-adjective:
English
its pretty good
its pretty fast/early
its pretty expensive/tall
its pretty slow/late
its pretty big
its pretty small
its pretty far
its pretty close
romaji
kekkou ii desu
kekkou hayai desu
kekkou takai desu
kekkou osoi desu
kekkou ookii desu
kekkou chiisai desu
kekkou tooi desu
kekkou chikai desu
Pronouns
nani – なに
‘nani’ and ‘nan’ are the two basic forms of ‘what’, which are the basis for 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
‘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
itsu-ka
dare-ka
literal
some-what
some-where
some-when
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…