か Particle

か Particle Japanese Grammar Lesson

Grammar Type: Particle

Essential Meaning: Either X or Y / Is X Y? (or is X not Y?) (marks alternatives or indicates that a sentence is interrogative)

Construction: 

• As an alternative marker:
  • Noun1 か Noun 2 (か)
    • E.g. バスか電車(でんしゃか) [Either by bus or by car]
  • (Verb / い-Adjective) informal + か
    • E.g. 食たべるか [Either X eats or… ]
    • E.g. 寒さむいか [Either X is cold or…]
  • な-Adjective Stem / Noun + [X / です] + か
    • E.g. 静しずかか [Either X is quiet or…]
    • E.g. 先生せんせいですか [Either X is a teacher or…]

• As a question marker:
  • (Verb / い-Adjective) + か
    • E.g. 食たべるか [Does X eat?]
    • E.g. 話はなしますか [Does X speak?]
  • (な-Adjective Stem / Noun) + [X / です] + か
    • E.g. 静しずかか [Is X quiet?]
    • E.g. 静しずかですか [Is X quiet?]
    • E.g. 先生せんせいか [Is X a teacher?]
    • E.g. 先生せんせいですか [Is X a teacher?]

Notes:

• The particle か is used to mark alternatives. It is also used to mark interrogative sentences (which is really just a special case of marking alternatives in which the second alternative is omitted). Generally speaking, if か connects to the main predicate, it is an interrogative marker; if か connects to an embedded noun or subordinate clause, it is an alternative marker. The two uses are described below:

• か as an alternative marker:
  • As an alternative marker, か is used to compare or contrast two alternative options. It roughly equates to “Either X Or Y” in English. The alternatives may be nouns or they may be sentences.
    • E.g. Nouns: 私わたしは電車でんしゃかバスかで行いく [I will go by train or by bus.]
    • E.g. Sentences: 食たべるか話はなすかどちらかにしなさい。[Eating or speaking: please just do one or the other.]
  • In the structure Noun 1 か Noun 2 (か), the second か is typically omitted. Also, the two sentences must have informal predicates since they are subordinate clauses. The particle は cannot be used in these sentences for the same reason.
    • E.g. 肉にくが高たかかったかマークが肉にくが嫌きらいだったかどちらかだ。[Either the meat was expensive or Mark didn’t like meat.] Note that both of sentences used as alternatives are informal and both take the が particle.
  • In the structure Sentence 1 か Sentence 2 (か), the sentences can not be interrogative. それとも should be used in such cases instead. The difference between か and それとも is that か marks alternatives, while それとも connects alternatives. それとも can optionally be included with non-interrogative sentences in conjunction with か.
    • E.g. *これはあなたのですかか私わたしのですか。[Is this yours or is it mine?] か can not be used to connect two questions.
    • E.g. これはあなたのですか。それとも私わたしのですか。[Is this yours. Or is it mine?]
    • E.g. 肉にくが高たかかったか。それともマークが肉にくが嫌きらいだったかどちらかだ。[Either the meat was expensive or Mark didn’t like meat.] それとも is optional in this case because the alternatives are not questions.
    • E.g. 私わたしと一緒いっしょに来きますか。それともここにいますか。[Will you come with me? Or will you stay here?] それとも is necessary here because the two alternatives are questions.

• か as a question marker:
  • か as a question marker is likely one of the first Japanese grammar concepts that you were exposed to. It is used to indicate that a sentence is a question. To be more specific, a Japanese interrogative sentence is simply a listing of two alternative options in which the second alternative is implicit rather than explicit. For example, consider this sentence:学生がくせいですか。それとも学生がくせいじゃないですか。[Are your a student. Or, are you not a student?]. This is an example of か as an alternative marker, but it is redundant since the second alternative is implied by the first. We can simply drop the second alternative and write 学生がくせいですか。[Are you a student?]. Similarly, マークは大学だいがくへいきますか。それとも行いきませんか。[Is Mark going to university? Or is he not going to university?] can simply be written as マークは大学だいがくへ行いきますか。[Is Mark going to university?]. This is how interrogative sentences work in Japanese.
  • Notice that か as an interrogative marker can be used with both formal and informal predicates.
  • In informal language, か may be dropped altogether. In such cases, a rising inflection is used to indicate that the sentence is interrogative.
    • E.g. 飲のみに行いく？ [Shall we go get a drink?]
  • In indirect sentences in which the speaker quotes or paraphrases an interrogative sentence, the quoted interrogative sentence retains its か particle.
    • E.g. 私わたしはテリーにナンシーが日本にほんへ行いくかと聞きいた。[I asked Terri whether Nancy is going to Japan.]
    • E.g. 私わたしはジョンに誰だれが来きたかとたずねた。[I asked John who had come.]
  • When な-Adjective + Copula is in the informal form (e.g. 静しずかだ, かわいいだ), the だ ending comes across as confident and assertive. When paired with the question-marker か, there is a conflict in meaning between the assertive だ and the interrogative か. For this reason, だ tends to be dropped with な-Adjectives.
    • E.g. 静しずかか [Is X quiet?] and かわいいか [Is X cute?] are preferable to 静しずかだか or かわいいだか.

Example Sentences:

私わたしは電車でんしゃかバスかで行いく。[I will go by train or by bus.]

トムが行いくかメアリーが行いくかどちらかだ。[Either Tom or Mary will go.]

私わたしは毎朝まいあさジュースかミルクを飲のむ。[Every morning, I drink juice or milk.]

それはボブかマークがします。[Either Bob or Mark will do that.]

手紙てがみを書かくか電話でんわをかけるかどちらかしてください。[Either write a letter or make a phone call, please.]

マークは大学だいがくへ行いきますか。[Is Mark going to university?]

私わたしはテリーにナンシーが日本にほんへ行いくかと聞きいた。[I asked Teri if Nancy is going to Japan.]

あなたは学生がくせいですか。[Are you a student?]

これはなんですか。[What’s this?]

友達ともだちは漢字かんじが難むずかしいかと聞きいた。[My friend asked if Kanji is difficult.]

僕ぼくは山崎やまざき先生せんせいが昨日きのう何なにを言いったか忘わすれてしまった。[I forgot what Yamazaki-sensei said yesterday.]

私わたしはケンにお金かねを貸かしたかどうか思おもい出だせない。[I can’t remember whether or not I lent money to Ken.]

WILD Examples:

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