Grammar Info

N5 Lesson 3: 3/14

かOr

Structure

Verb (A) + か + Verb (B) + か

[い]Adjective (A) + か + [い]Adjective (B) + か

[な]Adjective (A) + か + [な]Adjective (B) + か

Noun (A) + か + Noun (B) + か

Details

  • Particle

  • Adverbial Particle

  • Standard

About か

One of the common uses of the particle か is often translated to 'or' in English. While this translation is accurate, it is not actually any different from か's regular usage as a question marker.

From these examples, we can see that, in Japanese, か is performing the same role that a question mark would, or that a change in tone of voice would in spoken language.

'Would you like tea? coffee?' (said with a rising tone).

This nuance of か can be used after the dictionary form of almost any word in Japanese. However, using です or ます will change the nuance from 'presenting possibilities', to 'asking a formal question', so should be avoided.

Topics

This and/or That

N5 Topic

In this Topic, we're going to learn a couple of ways to list and group things in Japanese. Also, we’ll deepen our understanding of particles.


Synonyms



Vocab Coverage

All Bunpro Vocab that appears on this item.

Examples

--:--

  • ここかそこ。

    Here or there?

  • 赤(あか)か青(あお)。

    Red or blue.

  • 寝(ね)るか遊(あそ)ぶ。

    To sleep or to play.

  • 今日(きょう)か明日(あした)。

    Today or tomorrow.

  • これは私(わたし)のペンかあなたのペンですか。

    Is this my pen or your pen?

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  • Online

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        • [DBJG] A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar

          Page 164

        • Tobira

          Page 45

        • みんなの日本語 I

          Page 20 [CH 2]

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      か – Grammar Discussion

      Most Recent Replies (11 in total)

      • Kirumi

        Kirumi

        The か review question 寝る …か… 遊ぶ。 asks for “Non-exhaustive, Particle”, while a と review question asked for an “Exhaustive” particle. What exactly does exhaustive and non-exhaustive mean?

      • Pablunpro

        Pablunpro

        Hi!

        ‘Exhaustive’ means that you are stating all of the items whilst ‘Non-exhaustive’ means that you are just stating some of the items while implying that there are more left unsaid.

        HTH!

      • richardf89

        richardf89

        This grammar point seems particularly poorly worded. The structure suggests usage should be: verb/adjective/noun + か + verb/adjective/noun + か. But pretty much every example sentence omits the second か.

        Does this mean the second か is optional? Where is the nuance here? Does this come up again in the future but in a bit more detail?

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