か (ka): The Question Particle

Level: N5. (Note: the JLPT publishes no official grammar list; the level shown is the common textbook convention.)

A particle is a short word that comes after another word to show its job. か (ka) is the question particle: put it at the end of a statement and you have a question. 学生です (gakusei desu) means “I am a student”; 学生ですか (gakusei desu ka) means “Are you a student?”

The rule

To ask a question in Japanese, take a normal sentence and add か (ka) at the very end. Nothing else moves. Unlike English, you do not swap the subject and verb, and in writing you do not need a question mark — the か (ka) already marks it as a question.

か (ka) attaches after the final word, including the polite ending です (desu) or ます (masu): 行きます (ikimasu, “I go”) becomes 行きますか (ikimasu ka, “Do you go?”). It works the same for yes/no questions and for questions with a question word such as 何 (nani, “what”) or どこ (doko, “where”): お名前は何ですか (o-namae wa nan desu ka) = “What is your name?”

か (ka) also works inside a sentence to mean “whether”: 行くかわかりません (iku ka wakarimasen) = “I don’t know whether (I) will go”. This embedded use often pairs with どうか (dō ka) for “whether or not”.

Statement to question at a glance

Example sentences

Each sentence was written for this lesson, with readings.

Common mistakes

• ❌ です学生か (desu gakusei ka) → ✅ 学生ですか (gakusei desu ka). Keep the normal word order and add か (ka) only at the very end; do not invert like English.
• ❌ 何を食べます (nani o tabemasu) as a polite question → ✅ 何を食べますか (nani o tabemasu ka). A question word such as 何 (nani) still needs か (ka) at the end in polite speech.
• ❌ 学生か (gakusei ka) to a stranger → ✅ 学生ですか (gakusei desu ka). In polite speech keep です (desu) before か (ka); bare 学生か (gakusei ka) is blunt and casual.
• ❌ 行きますかですか (ikimasu ka desu ka) → ✅ 行きますか (ikimasu ka). Use か (ka) once; do not stack it with another ending.
• ❌ assuming 学生です (gakusei desu) needs a “?” to become a question → ✅ 学生ですか (gakusei desu ka). It is か (ka), not punctuation, that asks; a “?” is optional and casual.

A short conversation

— お名前は何ですか。 (O-namae wa nan desu ka.) — “What is your name?” — リンです。学生ですか。 (Rin desu. Gakusei desu ka.) — “I’m Rin. Are you a student?” — はい、学生です。コーヒーを飲みますか。 (Hai, gakusei desu. Kōhī o nomimasu ka.) — “Yes, I’m a student. Will you have coffee?” — いいですね。 (Ii desu ne.) — “That sounds good.”

Usage notes

• Casual speech drops か (ka). Among friends you often just raise your pitch: 学生？ (Gakusei?) with a rising tone means “You’re a student?”. The polite written form keeps か (ka).
• か (ka) between nouns means “or”. コーヒーかお茶 (kōhī ka ocha) = “coffee or tea”; 月曜日か火曜日 (getsuyōbi ka kayōbi) = “Monday or Tuesday”.
• Negative + か (ka) is an invitation. 行きませんか (ikimasen ka), literally “won’t you go?”, is a friendly “would you like to go?”.
• Embedded かどうか (ka dō ka) turns a yes/no question into “whether or not”: 来るかどうか (kuru ka dō ka) = “whether or not (he) comes”.

Compared with ね (ne) and よ (yo)

• ね (ne) seeks agreement, like “…, right?”: いい天気ですね (ii tenki desu ne) = “Nice weather, isn’t it?”. It is not a real question — you expect a yes.
• よ (yo) adds new information or emphasis, like “you know”: 時間ですよ (jikan desu yo) = “It’s time, you know.” Where か (ka) asks, ね (ne) and よ (yo) comment. A dedicated ね (ne) and よ (yo) lesson is on the way in the Japanese grammar section.

Quick recap before the quiz.

Practice

Quiz

Recap cheat-sheet

Next

• Review the polite ending it attaches to: the です (desu) copula
• Contrast the subject marker: the が (ga) particle
• Back to the Japanese grammar section
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