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Questions tagged [particle-か]

助詞「か」. Used with phrases to indicate questions, or with nouns to indicate a list of alternatives.

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Questions with ~か or without: how to choose?

Studying Japanese on my own, I've learned that in order to make a question, you usually add the particle "~か", like this: 今何時ですか。 It's also true that a question can be asked without it, using the rising tone of voice. But then I found out that in…
Alenanno
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Usage of か after a clause?

Here's a sentence I found: デパートはどこにあるか、知っていますか？ Do you know where the department store is? What's the purpose of the か particle in 「どこにあるか」? Under what circumstances do I use it? I'm fairly sure it's not the か that's normally used to form…
theycallmezeal
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Use of ～のか (～んですか) in questions not seeking a yes/no answer

I would like to know if there is a shift in nuance in questions such as these: 誰が参加したんですか。 vs. 誰が参加しましたか。 いつ着いたんですか。 vs. いつ着きましたか。 I wish to limit discussion to only non-yes/no questions (so questions asking Who? When? Where? Why? and so on). I…
Derek Schaab
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How to use 〜かのよう{に・な・だ}

I understand fine how to use 〜(の)よう{に・な・だ}, but I'm not sure when or how you can add in the か. Here's an example from my book: ４月になって雪が降るなんて、まるで冬が戻って来たかのようです。 How is this different than if it had just said 戻って来た(の)ようです? Is it purely adding more…
istrasci
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のか - Particle "lamenting reflections on the preceding statement". What?

I've come across this sentence in my manga. そ　そうか　そういう疑いを持っているのか It's actually fairly easy, but the particle at the end has confused me. I thought it was the two particles の and か, but then I saw this in a dictionary: のか - Particle - endorsing…
AlbeyAmakiir
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How to express “X (and parenthetically Y)”?

When writing in English, quite often I'll want to express a connection between two noun phrases as “X (or Y)” or “X (and Y)”, where the punctuation adds a notion of “Y is a little beside the point, but to be completely correct I'll mention it in…
Lynn
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What does the ~たものか mean in どうやって彼らを誤魔化したものか?

I stumbled upon this sentence: どうやって彼らを誤魔化したものか──と思案するように、ヒューイは愛想笑いを浮かべた。 and I was told that I should understand it as どうやって彼らを誤魔化せばいいだろうか──と思案するように、ヒューイは愛想笑いを浮かべた。 However I can't find in any dictionary at hand an entry which would explain…
永劫回帰
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What does からか mean?

I'm translating the following sentence from a book (exact sentence is directly after dialogue in the picture). 興奮からか銀髪の外国人の口調は、いつになく流暢だった。 I have absolutely zero clue what "からか" means in general and in the context of the above sentence, as I've…
Toyu_Frey
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Difference between か and のか

I am going through 'All About Particles', and came across the following two sentences: なぜ彼がそんなことをやったか、わかりません。 どうして彼女がそんなつまらない本を読んでいるのか、不思議です。 What is the difference between using か in the first one and のか in the second? I have searched online, and…
Ruvi Lecamwasam
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In informal speech is か used or omitted?

I've heard different things - on the one hand saying things like 高いか, きれいか, or 飲むか is too aggressive, but in my grammar book it says that か is used with informal forms. Furthermore I'm told that instead of using か with informal forms, one should…
nehry
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What is the meaning of か in といったところか

I have two examples: 噂に違{たが}わぬと言ったところか. -- Then, he really lives up to the rumor! この建物の建設にかかる費用はおおよそ100億円といったところか -- That would mean that we need 10 million to build this building! I would bet that か here is used in the following sense…
永劫回帰
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Is there something omitted after だか in this sentence?

The following paragraph is from page 20 of…
user1478
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「知るか」 and variant phrases

I didn't find any questions about this, except for this one, but it's not really the same thing. I've seen the phrase 「知るか」 a few times in anime and manga before and I've always interpreted it as "as if I'd know!". Recently I came across the phrase…
E. Matsunaga
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か as a suffix to mean "a few": Why is 何__かがVERB not allowed

Here is yet another puzzling sentence for me from a dictionary I am using: 何ページ か 欠けている。 A few pages are missing. (研究社) My understanding is that while 何ページ ambiguously means "what/which/how many page/pages," adding か as a suffix to it limits the…
Yeti Ape
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What is the meaning of "超か" in this news headline?

I saw this in a news article saying that Toshiba had losses of \1T: 東芝、赤字１兆円超か http://www.asahi.com/articles/DA3S12867082.html What is the purpose of adding か at the end?
HAL
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