What & When
In this lesson, we will take a second yet closer look at the words for “what” and “when.” This time, we will look at how to express these words outside of polite speech, in which case some variation will have to be taken into consideration.
What?
“What?” in plain speech is なんだ. なに is rendered as なん because /ni/ assimilates to /n/ for ease of pronunciation. For both Ex. 1 and Ex. 2, the speaker is likely male, as it is rare for female speakers to utilize such direct, coarse tones.
1. 何だ？
What (do you want/is it)?
2. 何だよ！
What the heck?!
While Ex. 2 also shows irritation, which is amplified with the use of the particle よ, it is also evident that the question is largely rhetorical.
Of course, なん is the form of 何 used in polite speech, as です, which follows it, starts with the consonant /d/.
3. 趣味は何ですか。
What are your hobbies?
4. お仕事は何ですか。
What is your job?
5. 神の王国とは何ですか。
What is “God’s kingdom”?
It must be duly noted that なんだ is NOT limited to coarse male speech. Instead, you will see it used in the written language, especially when making philosophical questions. You can imagine sentences like Ex. 6 being spoken in slightly dramatic soliloquies.
6. 人間とは何だ？
What is mankind?
Another neat phrase that utilizes なん instead of なに is なんぞや. This utilizes archaic grammar, and so using it is done so to be dramatic.
7. 我1とは何ぞや。
What am I?
In the speech of children and/or female speakers, なに tends to be dragged out, resulting in な～に, but this is not common in male speech. You may also encounterなんなの？, which adds more emphasis to getting an explanation.
Of course, it is worth noting that 何 is a noun, and as a noun, it may be used with case particles or used as the predicate as we have seen. As the predicate, however, it is rarely followed by the particle か. When it is, the question sounds rhetorical and/or narrative.
8. お土産は何がいいですか。
What would be good for souvenirs?
9. あれって何？
What is that?
10. 津波とは何か。
What is a tsunami?
With adverbial particles, なに may optionally undergo fortification in pronunciation, becoming rendered as なんに, and this is particularly so with も.
11. いや、な（ん）にもない。
Oh, no, it’s nothing.
12. 何にでも成れるよ。
You can become anything.
In compounds, なん and なに are used differently2. なん is used with counter phrases to mean “how many…?” while なに is used to mean “what kind of…?”
13. 全部で何色ありますか。
In total, how many colors are there?
14. デンマークの国旗は、2色使われている。
As for the national flag of Denmark, two colors are used.
15. 何色のペンキを買ったらいいですか。
What color paint should I buy?
16. 何色に見えますか。
What color does it look like?
17. 日本には全部で何県3ありますか。
In total, how many prefectures are there in Japan?
18. 竹島は何県にありますか。
What prefecture is Takeshima in?
19. 何部に所属してるの？
What club/department do you belong to?
20. 何部くらい作ればいいですか。
About how many copies should I make?
21. 彼は何人ですか。
What nationality is he?
22. 兄弟は何人いますか。
How many siblings do you have?
なにで vs なんで
One rather difficult challenge presented by “what” that confuses students is the difference between なにで and なんで. The use of the particle で here is used to show means/method/composition. In this sense, なにで is almost always the reading used.
23. 口紅の色はなにで決まる？
What determines the color of lipstick?
24. このジュースってなにで作ったの？
What did you make this juice with?
25. 爪は何で出来ているの？
What are nails made of?
26. 入試に出る漢字は、なにで勉強すればいいですか。
What should I use to study with for the Kanji that appear in the entrance exam?
27. 構文は何で勉強すればいいんでしょうか。
What should I use to study with for sentence structure?
Pronunciation Note: なにで may still alternatively be heard pronounced as なんで. However, most speakers avoid this, as なんで typically means “why?”
28.
坂井：「定村さん、いつ横浜支社に行きますか。」
定村：「水曜日に行きます。」
坂井：「｛なにで・なんで｝行きますか。」
定村：「飛行機で行きます。」
Sakai: Mr. Sadamura, when will you be going to the Yokohama office?
Sadamura: I’m going on Wednesday.
Sakai: [By what means/how] will you be going?
Sadamura: I’m going by plane.
There is a caveat to using なにで over the usual どうやって, and that it refers to the means of which an action is carried out.
29. なにで来たの？
What did you use to get here?
30. どうやって来たの？
How did you come?
Sentence Note. In Ex. 30, the question is open-ended enough for the listener to respond with something like “by camouflaging myself,” which would be an inappropriate response to Ex. 31.
31. なにを使って来たの？
What did you use to come here?
Sentence Note: In Ex. 31, the question is out-of-place as a typical question one would ask in Japanese, but if you were to ask this to someone, you would inevitably get a smart-alecky reply on the lines of “by using my legs.”
In the same vein of thought, even when a verb primarily used for movement is used in a different sense, なにで・なんで can be seen, again, with なにで being most preferred.
32. さて、何で行きますか。
Alright, what will we go with?
When
The three expressions that you will need to pay most attention to not confuse are いつ (when?), 何時 (what time?), and 何時間 (how many hours?).
33. いつ寝ますか。
When do you go to sleep?
34. 何時間寝ますか。
How many hours do you sleep?
35. 何時に寝ますか。
What time do you go to sleep?
36. 会議はいつ終わりますか。
When does the meeting end?
37. 今日は何時に帰るの？
What time will you return home today?
38. 人類が火星に行けるようになるのはいつだろうか。
When will mankind become able to go to Mars, I wonder?
39. いつの間にか眠り込んでいた。
I had fallen asleep before I knew it.
Phrase Note: いつの間にか is a set phrase meaning “before one knows it.”
Aside from these three basic expressions, there also exists いつ頃 (about when?) and いつなんどき (at any moment). いつなんどき is a highly emphatic form which is seldom used in literal questions. なんどき is an old-fashioned reading of 何時.
40. いつ頃完成しますか。
About when will it be completed/you will complete it?
41. 今、何どきですか。はい、ラーメンどきよ！
What time is it? It’s ramen time!
Sentence Note: Ex. 41 is a line to an old ramen commercial. Here, なんどき is used to ask “what time is it” as in “what’s supposed to be going on?”
42. いつなんどき必要になるかも分からない。
I also have no clue when it’ll become needed.
43. （いつ）なんどき事故に遭わないとも限らない。
It is not necessarily the case that you will never get into an accident.
44. 水分補給はいつなんどきでも忘れないでください。
Don’t ever forget to be hydrated.
- 我 is the original word meaning “I” in Japanese, and it still manages to be used in set phrases. ↩︎
- There is one exception in particular that must be noted, which is 何曜日 (what day of the week?). Although its traditional reading is なにようび, it is most frequently pronounced as なんようび. ↩︎
- Most people will answer this question by giving the number of prefectures that are 県, excluding those that are 都道府. ↩︎