How to Make Questions in Japanese (the か Particle)

Forming questions in Japanese is one of the easiest things you''ll learn — no word-order changes needed.

Add か to make a question

Take a statement and add か at the end: 学生です (I am a student) → 学生ですか (Are you a student?). The word order stays exactly the same.

Question words

• 何 (nani/nan) — what
• 誰 (dare) — who
• どこ (doko) — where
• いつ (itsu) — when
• どうして / なぜ — why
• いくら (ikura) — how much

Example: これは何ですか (What is this?), トイレはどこですか (Where is the toilet?).

Casual questions

In casual speech, か is often dropped and you simply raise your intonation: 行く？ (Going?).

With just か and a handful of question words, you can ask about almost anything.