N5 Topics
L8: Who Did What Now?!
Learn more about か and も, and question words
Who Did What Now?!
In this Topic, we're going to learn about how か and も can be added to question words to turn them into non-specific nouns.
For example, 何 can become 何か 'something' or 何も 'nothing', and 誰 can become 誰か 'someone' or 誰も 'no one'. With this, we will be able to talk in more general terms about things and people in the world.
Grammar in this Topic
なにか・なにも
Something, Nothing, Anything, Not anything, Some kind of, Not any kind of
何か and 何も are constructions that are used in Japanese for expressing 'something', 'anything', or 'nothing'. The main difference between the two being that 何も is used with negative phrases (phrases that use ない or ありません), while 何か is used in other cases.
To use this expression, we simply need to put 何か or 何も before the desired phrase.
Caution
There are several casual forms of these expressions that are used in speech, or in certain dialects. These forms are なんにか, なんか, or なんにも, なんも.
誰か・どこか・誰も・どこも
Someone, Somewhere, Not anyone, Not anywhere
The constructions 誰か, and どこか are used when you want to ask, or answer questions about 'someone', or 'somewhere' (positive sentences). Alternatively, 'no one', or 'nowhere' based statements are made with 誰も, and どこも (negative sentences). Structures like this that use 誰 were briefly discussed in the 誰 grammar point.
Using 誰, or どこ is not limited to the か and も particles. へ, に, or と may also be partnered with か or も, to give a more specific meaning.
As can be seen with these examples, か will always precede any other particle in a positive sentence. However, the opposite is true for も. も will always follow any other particles in negative sentences. This is because か will always attach directly to the noun (when altering the meaning of that noun), but も alters the whole phrase, not just the noun.
However, It should be noted that も is not limited to appearing in negative sentences, as can be seen with the final example.
Details
One common point of confusion is when 何 is pronounced as なに, and when it is pronounced as なん. Let's dispel that confusion now.
You What?
As mentioned on the respective grammar page, when used in the words 何も and 何か, 何 is technically pronounced as なに. However, in casual speech this is often shortened to なん.
Besides this, なんか is also sometimes used as a filler word in casual speech. People simply say it to fill space while they are thinking, similar in tone to the use of 'like' as a filler in English.
You Can Count On This
Outside of 何か and 何も, there are some general rules for when なに and なん are used.
なに is used to generally question 'what', or before particles like が and を.
なん is used before counters (for example, 何年 means ‘what year’ or ‘how many years’), or often with words starting with D, T, or N sounds.
Enviable Shoes
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先生：「ゆうじ君の靴を誰か知ってる？」
さくら：「なんか、昼にけんじ君が触っているのを見た！」
けんじ：「僕は何も知らない！」
まみ：「私も昼ごはんの時間に、誰かがゆうじ君の靴を履いているのを見ました！」
先生：「けんじ君、何か知らない？」
けんじ：「本当は、ゆうじ君の靴がかっこいいので、欲しかったんです。誰も見ていないと思って、ゆうじ君の靴を僕のカバンの中に入れました。」
先生：「それはとても悲しいです。ゆうじ君は靴がないから泣いてたよ。」
けんじ：「僕が悪いです。ごめんなさい。」