Overview
Question words are the backbone of asking about the world — who, what, where, when, why, how much. You’ve met several of these individually in earlier lessons; here we consolidate the full set in one place. Then we’ll learn something powerful: by attaching か, も, or でも to a question word, you can build indefinite pronouns like “something,” “nothing,” and “anything.”
Part 1: The Core Question Words
Japanese question words don’t change the sentence structure — you simply place them where the answer would go, and (in polite speech) end the sentence with か.
| Question word | Reading | Meaning |
| だれ | dare | who |
| なに／なん | nani / nan | what |
| どこ | doko | where |
| いつ | itsu | when |
| どう | dou | how / how about |
| どうして／なぜ | doushite / naze | why |
| いくら | ikura | how much (cost) |
| いくつ | ikutsu | how many / how old |
| どれ | dore | which one (of 3+) |
| どちら／どっち | dochira / docchi | which (of 2) |
| どの | dono | which ___ (+ noun) |
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