In the previous lesson, we learned about verbs and their importance. We even started building our first sentences in Japanese. In this lesson, we will take our sentences a step further with questions.
You may ask yourself: “How do I form a questions ? Do I add a question mark at the end of the sentence ? Do I add two question marks as in Spanish ? NO.
Forming a question in Japanese is fairly simple. All you have to do is add a “ka(か)” behind the verb. In order to make it clear I will show it to you with some examples.
Check out the Hiragana and Katakana lesson if you have problems reading the examples.
Examples:
りんご ですか = Ringo desu ka.
(Is it an apple?)
りんご では ありませんか = Ringo dewa arimasen ka
(Is it not an apple?)
りんご でしたか = Ringo deshita ka
(Was it an apple?)
りんご では ありません でしたか = Ringo dewa arimasen deshita ka
(Was is it not an apple?)
As you can see, forming a question in Japanese is quite simple. You attach the “ka(か)” to the final verb and you are done. The really good thing as you can see, is that you don't have to rearrange the sentence as you do in English.
※ It is an apple => Is it an apple?
Therefore it is easier to form a question in Japanese than in English or other languages.
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Particle “GA”
You use the particle “ga(が)” in any questions that asks for who ?
Example:
だれが = dare
(who)
だれが りんごを たべましたか = dare ga ringo wo tabemashita
(who at an apple ?)
せんじさん が たべました = Senji-san ga tabemashita
(Senji ate/did)
As a matter of fact, you can use “ga” instead of “wa(は)” and still have a valid sentence. While it is true that you can use the particle “ga(が)” as a replacement for “wa(は)”, you should keep in mind that the purpose of “ga” is not to connect words and make the sentence smooth but to attract the attention of the reader/listener.
We will talk more about particles and their use in the next lesson.
For now you just have to know that questions in Japanese use a “ka(か)” at the end of the sentence and the subject is connected with the rest of the sentence with the particle “ga(が)”.
Vocabulary
For more vocabulary visit the Kanji & Vocabulary lesson.
The five Ws are pretty much self explanatory.
The suffix -san is attached to any given name to make it polite. As you might know, in Japanese culture politeness is number one. I will post a Japanese culture lesson in the coming days with some of my picture from Japan so you understand Japanese culture a little bit more.
※ Suzuki-san => Mr. Suzuki
As you can see, I only posted the present positive form of the verbs. It is up to you to conjugate them as you have learned in the previous lessons.
Out of these 3 verbs, “shimasu” is a little bit special because it does not just mean “do” but you actually use it to build verbs out of nouns. We will learn more about “shimasu” in another lesson. For now it is fine as you see it.
Important: remember the golden Japanese verb rule. Verbs go always at the end of the sentence. Although I think you remember that.
I hope you enjoyed this short lesson about Japanese questions and vocabulary.