Grammar Info

N4 Lesson 10: 12/18

(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

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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.

Related

Misc.

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)

  • shadowstar

    shadowstar

    Wonderful! Thank you so much!

  • ParisP

    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

    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!

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