Question words: なに, だれ, どれ, いつ, etc
These are called interrogatives. They're used in order to ask wh-questions. They sometimes show up also as parts of larger grammatical constructs or set expressions.
| Kanji | Reading | Meaning | Example (JP) | Example (EN) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 何 | なに | what | 何する？ | What will you do? |
| 誰 | だれ | who | あなた、誰？ | Who are you? |
| どれ | which | どれがいいと思いますか？ | Which one do you think is good? | |
| いつ | when | 次の電車はいつですか？ | When is the next train? |
There are many other question words, they all work similarly so we won’t be listing all of them. If you recall the lesson on こそあど words, the ど part of the こそあど set refers to these words.
When asking questions, one thing to keep in mind is to never mark these words with the particle は. The only exception is some set expressions like 何はともあれ but you can literally count these on one hand.
昨日は誰が来たの？ Who came (here) yesterday?