äŊãģčĒ°
Nani / Dare
What / Who
đ¸ Basic Interrogatives for Things and People đ¸
đŦ Dialogue
Sore wa nani desu ka.
What is that?
Kore wa hon desu.
This is a book.
Are wa dare desu ka.
Who is that person over there?
Are wa Tanaka-sensei desu.
That is Professor Tanaka.
Kono hito wa dare desu ka.
Who is this person?
Sono hito wa watashi no tomodachi desu.
That person is my friend.
đ Vocabulary
5 wordsâ Key Sentence
A wa nani / dare desu ka.
What / Who is A?
- Pattern: A 㯠äŊ / čĒ° ã§ããã
- Meaning: Asking about things (what) or people (who).
Sore wa nani desu ka.
What is that?
Ano hito wa dare desu ka.
Who is that person?
đ Explanation
To ask questions in Japanese, we use interrogative words like äŊ (nani) for 'what' and čĒ° (dare) for 'who'.
The sentence structure remains the same as a statement, but you replace the noun with the question word and add the particle ã (ka) at the end to indicate a question.
Note that nani can sometimes be pronounced as nan depending on the following sound, such as in 'Nan desu ka'.
Sore wa nan desu ka?
= 'What is that?'
Are wa dare desu ka?
= 'Who is that?'
đ Quiz
How do you ask 'Who is that person?' in Japanese?