(Question-Phrase) + かIncluding questions within sentences

Do not attach だ or です to nouns or な-adjectives preceding か

Structure

Question Word + か + わかる⁽¹⁾

⁽¹⁾ 覚(おぼ)える、決(き)める、知(し)っている and so on

Details

About Question-phrase + か

Often, the adverbial particle か is used in the middle of a sentence, in the same way that it is as a sentence ending particle. The main differences are as follows:

Adverbial Particle: 副助詞(ふくじょし) - Highlights uncertain things '不確(ふたし)かであること'. This is the same か as in どこか 'somewhere'.

Sentence Ending Particle: 終助詞(しゅうじょし) - Highlights doubts and questions '疑問(ぎもん)や質問(しつもん)'. This is a direct question.

In the case of the adverbial particle か and 'uncertain things', this will almost always be followed by a word that is seeking information about the uncertain thing.

As can be seen in these examples, sometimes the adverbial particle will appear by itself, and sometimes it will appear together with the sentence ending particle in the same sentence. However, due to the 'uncertainty' being displayed by the adverbial particle, the question marker at the end of the sentence is not required.

Caution

This か should not be preceded by だ (or です), this is why words like どこか and 誰(だれ)か are not どこだか and 誰(だれ)だか.

Examples

--:--

僕(ぼく)がどこにいるかわかる？

Do you know where I am?
(question within a larger sentence)

いつ美術館(びじゅつかん)に行(い)くか決(き)めましたか？

Have you decided when you are going to the art museum?
(question within a larger sentence)

彼(かれ)の好(この)みの味(あじ)が何(なに)かわかる？

Do you know what kind of flavor(s) he likes?
(question within a larger sentence)

彼(かれ)が誰(だれ)のことを好(す)きかわかりません。

I do not know who he likes.
(question within a larger sentence)

何(なに)を消(け)したか知(し)っている？

Do you know what was erased?
(question within a larger sentence)

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Question-phrase + か – Grammar Discussion

Most Recent Replies (14 in total)

Pushindawood
including questions within sentences
Structure
- Question-phrase + か + わかる, おぼえていない, しっている, etc.
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Do not attach だ or です to nouns or な-adjectives preceding か

[Questions within sentences are in short form・だ is usually dropped after a な-adjective or noun and before か・かどうか is used when the question word is not present and in ‘if/whether or not’ questions]

僕がどこにいるかわかる？
ezhmd
Hello,

About this example: 彼が誰のことを好きかわかりません。
Shouldn’t it be like this: 彼は誰のことが好きかわかりません。?
mrnoone
Hey, long time no see!

Both are acceptable.

When you embed a question within the larger sentence it is OK to mark the object of liking with を instead of が。
It is also OK to do this normal way and use が instead. Same applies to 嫌い.

(私は)彼が誰のことが好きかわかりません。
(私は)彼が誰のことを好きかわかりません。
seanblue
Why does this grammar point use green instead of orange and yellow?
DonChanHype
かどうか (and possibly some other grammar points that I don’t know yet) should probably be included in the related grammar points. Vice versa, this grammar point should be included on the かどうか page I think.

EDIT: It’s also covered by Tae Kim’s guide to grammar here, so that should probably also be added to the readings!
Pushindawood
@DonChanHype Thank you for your comment! I have added かどうか and some other grammar points to the related section. I have also included the Tae Kim link that you provided in the Readings section. Cheers!
DonChanHype
Thanks as always!
WireMouse
It might be helpful to include sentences that use the nominalization のか as well, since I’ve been getting confused when seeing that out in the wild. For example, this WaniKani sentence: 「字がきたなすぎて、薬方に何が書いてあるのかさっぱり分かりません。」

In this grammar point, か comes right after the verb, with no nominalizer, but のか can happen as well, right?
shadowstar
I’ve been having a lot of difficulty with a particular sentence from a manga (Boku no Kokoro no Yabai Yatsu) that I think may relate to this grammar point or かどうか, so I’d like to ask for some help parsing it here:
謙虚なのかなんなのかわからん
I know this translates to “Is this supposed to be you being humble?”, but I’d love some help from someone with more experience in parsing out the pieces of it. Thank you!
Fuga
Hey @shadowstar !

A more literal translation would be ‘I don’t know if you are being modest or what’.

謙虚なのか ‘whether you are modest’ なんなのか ‘or what’ 分からん ‘I have no idea’.

I hope this helps!
shadowstar
That was really helpful, thank you! Thanks to your breakdown I was able to learn that なんなのか was its own expression meaning “what is it (that), the meaning of something, what something is about”.

For the portion “謙虚なのか” is there a corresponding grammar point aside from this one that is worth visiting, to see how か is used in a questioning way in the middle of a sentence?
Fuga
Glad I could help!

The なの that comes after 謙虚 is an expression that could be translated as ‘that’s the way it is’, and is followed by this か!
shadowstar
Wonderful! Thank you so much!
ParisP
The structure is presented as " Question Word + か + わかる" but in the first example “忘年会に社長が来るか分かりますか？” Which one is the question word? My understanding so far is that a question word is like 何, どの, いつ, etc.
Pablunpro
Hi, welcome!

Indeed you are right, and the structure seems to be incomplete.

If you guide yourself by the title of the grammar point ((Question-Phrase) + か) you’ll see that also a phrase (aka a full fledged sentence) can be used before か to turn into into a question, or the thing that is uncertain. In this case, the phrase would be ‘忘年会に社長が来る’.

HTH!