何(なに) + かSomething, Nothing, Anything, Not anything, Some kind of, Not any kind of

Most Recent Replies (17 in total)

• 

  Pushindawood

  something・nothing
  anything
  any kind of
  some kind of

  Structure

  • 何か + Verb [る]
  • 何も + Verb [ない]
  • 何か + Noun + Verb [る]
  • 何も + Noun + Verb [ない]
  • 何か + Adjective
  • 何も + Adjective [いくない・じゃない]

  [Both なんにか・なんか and なんにも・なんも are used in casual speech and in certain dialects]

  View on Bunpro

• 

  deltacat3

  In this example sentence, why is する used in its progressive form?

  いいえ、何もしていませんよ。
  No, you didn’t do anything (wrong).

  Would it make any difference if the plain negative past form was used instead?

  いいえ、何もしませんでしたよ。

• 

  Pushindawood

  @deltacat3 Hey! ていない is often used to describe events or actions that did not happen/take place in the past. This is especially true for events/actions that occurred recently. Here is a great breakdown of the difference between ていません and ませんでした. Cheers!

• 

  deltacat3

  Thanks for the insight yet again @Pushindawood! That was an good read!

• 

  Paulkun

  Hi there,
  as far as I understood the topic:
  なにか = something specific, while なにも is used for something not specific (something vs anything)
  Could someone please explain why this answer is marked wrong ?
  
• 

  mrnoone

  Hey and welcome on the community forums

  This is a very, very good question. It is more about the English approximation of Japanese, rather than Japanese itself though.

  English:

  • something means that thing is unknown and is used mostly in positive sentences.

  • anything means a thing of any kind and it is used both in questions and negative sentences

  Japanese:

  • 何か is used in affirmative sentences and questions, so in affirmative ones, it is translated as something, and in questions, it can be translated as anything
  • 何も is generally used in negative sentences, so it can be translated as anything or nothing
  • 何でも is generally used in affirmative sentences and means everything
• 

  max99x

  I think I’ve reached a consistent understanding of the concept of なにも and its ilk.

  1. なにも･なにか･だれも･etc. are adverbs, so they modify the whole predicate, rather than nouns like in English.
  2. も is the equivalent of logical “for any X” and か is the equivalent of “for some X”.
  3. When XXか･も is the target of は･が･を, they are replaced by the か･も. This is similar to how も behaves when used in the “too” sense.
  4. When XXか･も is the target of other particles like に･で･へ･と･から･etc., the も moves past them.

  With those in mind, these statements makes sense:

  • ジョン･スノー、何も知らない: you know nothing, Jon Snow
    • も replaces を here
    • for any X, X を知らない
  • 何でもない: it’s nothing
    • conceptually, from 何も では じゃない
    • も moves past で and replaces は
    • for any X, X では じゃない
  • 何もない: nothing exists
    • conceptually, from 何も が ない
    • も replaces が
    ...
• 

  deltacat3

  「彼は箱の中からなにか取りでした。」
  「えっ？僕は何も見てないよ。」
  “He took something out of the box.”
  “Huh? I didn’t see anything.”

  In the second sentence, why is 見ていない used to express the past tense of see, instead of 見なかった?

• 

  nekoyama

  It’s not expressing the past tense as such, it’s expressing the state of not having seen anything which is ongoing in the present.

• 

  Pushindawood

  @deltacat3 To add to what @nekoyama said, ていない is often used to describe events or actions that did not happen/take place in the past. This is especially true for recent events/actions. Here is a great breakdown of the difference between ていません and ませんでした. Cheers!

• 

  deltacat3

  So if I understand this correctly, the ていない preference is based on how recent or related to the current situation a past action/event is.

  Thank you for all of this information @nekoyama & @Pushindawood. This feels quite similar to the reasoning behind ている’s resultant state.

• 

  znic1998

  Howdy fellas! I’m a little confused, in the example sentence

  日本にほんに行いって、なにか 食たべたいものがありますか

  What does the ものが indicate? I’m assuming the の is present to nominalise the “the something you want to eat” and the が is the subject marker for said phrase, but what does the も represent? Based on my very limited knowledge も is used for either phrases like “also” or “too” when marking the subject or to emphasize a certain number amount, but I can for the life of me find out what this も does. It might be covered in a grammar point I haven’t made it to yet, but i searched for some stuff and didn’t find anything. Any help would be appreciated, Thanks in advanced!

• 

  nekoyama

  もの is the word もの meaning “thing”. It’s modified by 食べたい and becomes a thing one wants to eat. が marks it as a subject.

• 

  znic1998

  makes sense

• 

  sunflowii

  SAMPLE SENTENCE FROM LESSON AND ITS TRANSLATION:
  " あのレストランの料理りょうりは何なにも美味おいしくないでしょう。
  There is nothing good at that restaurant, right?"

  Why I find this confusing: なにも + 美味しくない seems to me that it’s “nothing not delicious” so anything delicious.
  I know that なにも is used with a phrase that is negative BUT なにも can be translated to both nothing and anything. So how do you know when it’s nothing and when it’s anything?

• 

  Tensor

  Why isn’t 「何かを食べる」 grammatical?

  It seems to me that 何か is the direct object of 食べる but it seems that this isn’t accepted by the grammar checker.

  I understand the idea that 「何もを食べない」definitely sounds and looks ungrammatical, but I’d rather have a more detailed explanation than through analogy with this form’s “negation.”

• 

  IcyIceBear

  Both も and か are particles here attached to 何, so if one looks wrong, so does the other. 何か isn’t one word, it’s 何+か to equal the idea of “something”. The particle を is dropped when these other particles are in use.

  You can probably find better explanations in the resource tab of the grammar point, or by doing an Internet search of why not to use を after 何か/何も. I don’t tend to get hung up on the why of these points, just that it isn’t really done and that’s enough for me, so I can’t tell you more. Welcome to the community

• 

  Stainy