Open & Close Questions

Like most languages, Japanese has open and close questions as well.

i) Closed Questions

regular sentence + か =  CLOSED question sentence

• Closed questions are answered with either YES or NO answer.

What we have seen in the last blog post are examples of closed questions.

Example:
ロバートさんはアメリカじんですか。(Robaato-san wa Amerika-jin desu ka)
 Is Robert an American?
はい/いいえ。 (Hai/Iie)
 Yes/No

ii) Opened Questions

• Opened questions are mainly "What","Why", "Where", "Why" and "How".
• We will concentrate on "What" for now. This involve using なに (nani) and なん (nan)

 

a) なに (nani)

> > Use before a particle

Example:
なにが好きですか。(Nani ga suki desu ka)
 What do you like?

なにがだいきらいですか。 (Nani ga daikirai desu ka)
 What do you hate the most?

> > Use in combination with other words

Example: 
なにいろが好きですか。(Nani iro ga suki desu ka)
 What colour do you like?

ロバートさんはなにじんですか。(Robaato-san wa nanijin desu ka)
 What is Robert's nationality?
Note:  なにじん (nanijin) is often used to ask the nationality of a person.

b) なん (nan)

>> Immediately before です(desu)

Example:
せんもんはなんですか。(Senmon wa nan desu ka)
 What is your major?

これはなんですか。(Kore wa nan desu ka)
 What is this?

>> Before the particulars の (no) and で (de)
Note: we will explore further on these particle in the coming blog post. But for now, just read on.

Example:
今日はなんの日ですか。(Kyou wa nan no hi desu ka)
 What day is today?

なんで日本語をべんきょうしますか。 (Nan de nihongo wo benkyou shimasu ka)
How do you study Japanese language?

>> Before a counter

Example:
今はなんじですか。(Ima wa nan-ji desu ka)
 What time is it now?

あなたはなんさいですか。(Anata wa nansai desu ka)
 What is your age?

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Vocabulary たんご 

はい		hai	yes
いいえ		iie	no
アメリカ		Amerika	United States of America
好き	すき	suki	like
嫌い	きらい	kirai	hate
色	いろ	iro	colour
専門	せんもん	senmon	major, specialty
日本語	にほんご	nihongo	Japanese language
勉強	べんきょう	benkyou	to study
あなた		anata	you
～歳	～さい	~sai	~years old, age