Japanese Question Words: Dare, Nani, Doko, Itsu, and Naze

10 June 2026

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Japanese Question Words: Dare, Nani, Doko, Itsu, and Naze

If you can ask “who, what, where, when, and why,” you can hold a real conversation — even with a tiny vocabulary. That is exactly what Japanese question words give you. The good news is that asking questions in Japanese is mechanically simpler than in English: there is no “do you…”, no auxiliary verbs, and the word order barely changes.

This guide covers every question word a beginner needs, how the question particle か (ka) works, the tricky なに vs なん split, and one pattern that quietly turns these five words into about fifteen. Real example sentences throughout, no invented grammar.

The core question words at a glance

Here are the words that do most of the heavy lifting. Memorize this table and you are most of the way there.

Notice that a lot of them start with ど (do) — どこ, どう, どれ, どの. That ど- family all points at “which / where,” so once you spot the pattern they are easier to recall.

How to actually ask a question: the か particle

In English you flip the word order (“You are a student” → “Are you a student?”). In Japanese you usually just add か (ka) to the end of a statement. Nothing else moves.

• がくせいです。 (gakusei desu.) — “I am a student.”
• がくせいですか。 (gakusei desu ka?) — “Are you a student?”

Now drop a question word into the slot where the answer would go, and add か:

• なんじですか。 (nan-ji desu ka?) — “What time is it?”
• だれですか。 (dare desu ka?) — “Who is it?”
• どこですか。 (doko desu ka?) — “Where is it?”

In casual speech among friends, people often drop か and just raise their intonation: なに? (nani?) “What?”, どこ? (doko?) “Where?”. Keep か for politeness with strangers, teachers, and at work.

だれ (dare) — who

だれ asks “who.” There is also a polite version, どなた (donata), which you use for people you want to show respect to.

• これはだれのかさですか。 (Kore wa dare no kasa desu ka?) — “Whose umbrella is this?”
• あのひとはだれですか。 (Ano hito wa dare desu ka?) — “Who is that person?”

Note だれの (dare no) = “whose.” The の here is the same possessive の you meet everywhere in Japanese.

なに / なん (nani / nan) — what

This is the one that trips beginners up, because the same kanji 何 is read two ways. The rule is reliable:

• Use なん (nan) before です, before counters, and before sounds in the た/だ/な row. Examples: なんですか (nan desu ka, “what is it?”), なんじ (nan-ji, “what time”), なんにん (nan-nin, “how many people”).
• Use なに (nani) before particles like を and が, and when it stands alone. Examples: なにをたべますか (nani o tabemasu ka, “what will you eat?”), なに? (nani?, “what?”).

A quick pair to feel the difference:

• なにがすきですか。 (Nani ga suki desu ka?) — “What do you like?”
• なんのえいがですか。 (Nan no eiga desu ka?) — “What (kind of) movie is it?”

どこ (doko) — where

• トイレはどこですか。 (Toire wa doko desu ka?) — “Where is the toilet?” (the single most useful travel sentence in this article)
• えきはどこですか。 (Eki wa doko desu ka?) — “Where is the station?”

For a more polite “where,” especially when asking where someone is from, you will hear どちら (dochira): ごしゅっしんはどちらですか (go-shusshin wa dochira desu ka?), “Where are you from?”

いつ (itsu) — when

いつ is refreshingly simple — it never changes form and takes no extra particle of its own.

• たんじょうびはいつですか。 (Tanjōbi wa itsu desu ka?) — “When is your birthday?”
• いつにほんにいきますか。 (Itsu Nihon ni ikimasu ka?) — “When are you going to Japan?”

なぜ / どうして / なんで — why

There are three ways to say “why,” and they differ mainly in tone:

• どうしておくれましたか。 (Dōshite okuremashita ka?) — “Why were you late?”

A natural way to answer “why” is with から (kara), “because,” at the end of your reason: あめだから (ame da kara), “because it’s raining.” If you want the full breakdown of giving reasons, see our guide on how to say because in Japanese.

どう (dō) — how

どう asks “how” in the sense of “in what way” or “how is it”:

• にほんはどうですか。 (Nihon wa dō desu ka?) — “How is Japan?” / “How do you like Japan?”
• どうやっていきますか。 (Dō yatte ikimasu ka?) — “How do I get there?” (どうやって = by what means)

The one trick that triples your vocabulary

Here is the pattern that makes question words punch above their weight. Add a small particle to a question word and its meaning changes in a predictable way:

Look how much you get from one word:

• なにかたべますか。 (Nanika tabemasu ka?) — “Will you eat something?”
• なんでもいいです。 (Nandemo ii desu.) — “Anything is fine.”
• なにもたべませんでした。 (Nani mo tabemasen deshita.) — “I didn’t eat anything.”

That single さ table covers “someone/anyone/no one,” “something/anything/nothing,” and so on — all from the words you just learned.

Putting it together

A few full exchanges so you can see the words living in real sentences:

• A: しゅうまつはなにをしますか。 (Shūmatsu wa nani o shimasu ka?) — “What are you doing this weekend?” B: ともだちとどこかへいきます。 (Tomodachi to dokoka e ikimasu.) — “I’m going somewhere with a friend.”
• A: それはいくらですか。 (Sore wa ikura desu ka?) — “How much is that?”
• A: このでんしゃはどこへいきますか。 (Kono densha wa doko e ikimasu ka?) — “Where does this train go?”

One grammar note worth keeping in your pocket: when a question word is the subject of the sentence, it usually takes が (ga), not は (wa) — だれがきますか (dare ga kimasu ka?), “Who is coming?” If the wa/ga distinction is still fuzzy, our は particle guide walks through it slowly.

How to practice

Don’t just read these — drill them. Pick five objects around you and ask これはなんですか (kore wa nan desu ka?, “what is this?”) out loud for each. Then quiz yourself with the time (なんじですか), the day, the price of things you buy. Question words stick fastest when you actually use them to get information you want.

If you’d like to see roughly where your Japanese sits before choosing what to study next, you can test your JLPT level in a few minutes — question words like these are core N5 material, so it’s a fair early checkpoint.

Quick recap

Five words carry you a long way: だれ (who), なに/なん (what), どこ (where), いつ (when), なぜ/どうして (why), plus どう (how) and the price/quantity pair いくら and いくつ. Add か to ask politely, remember なん goes before です and counters while なに goes before を and が, and use the か / でも / も pattern to spin “some-,” “any-,” and “no-” out of the same handful of words. Master these and you can keep almost any conversation moving — even when your vocabulary runs out, you can always just ask.