October 12, 2011

Japanese Revelations {Particle か}

Lesson #2!
行くよ!^^

-----Particle 「か」-----

{At the end of a sentence...}
One of the first things one learns as a 日本語の学生 (read: student of Japanese) is that adding 「か」 to the end of a sentence makes it a question. Of course you need the question words and such, but they go in the same place as a normal subject, direct object, indirect object, etc. This is elementary, people!
 
{Surprise~}
However, I recently learned that 「か」 has another use: the opposite of 「と」. Is that hint good enough? What about... The opposite of 「と」 when it's used as 'and'?
Answer: 「か」 can be used as 'or'! O.O
Kinda crazy, isn't it? I mean, I had to buy an actual BOOK to figure that out. It's not ANYWHERE on the Internet, as far as I know...
But wait -- there's another comparison to 「と」!
... It's only used for nouns. So don't go using it with verbs, you hear me?

I guess I'll add a bit to this lesson -- it's too short. >.<

{それとも}
You know how in English you can say either "Do you want me to buy apples or bananas?" or "Do you want me to buy apples? Or do you want me to buy bananas?"? You know, how one is only one sentence, but the other has a second sentence as a kind of added thought? Well, there's a conjunction for that, too! But it's ONLY for when both sentences are questions. For example...

私は行きた方がいいか?それとも、行かないた方がいいか?
(No romaji, sorry. If you're seriously learning Japanese, you shouldn't need it~)
Should I go? Or should I not go?

This should be right. As far as I know. ^.^;

... I guess I have room for one more mini-lesson.

{それか}
This is basically the same as 「それとも」, but it's only used for going in between two sentences that aren't questions... Like this:

私は東京に行きます。それか、京都にいきます。。。
I'll go to Tokyo. Or maybe I'll go to Kyoto...

I really hope this makes sense... >.<"""

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