Visualizing Japanese Grammar Appendix Shoko Hamano George Washington University

Wh expressions Basic wh forms 誰（だれ） who 何（なに／なん） what どれ which one Here is a list of basic wh expressions (interrogative pronouns). 誰（だれ） who 何（なに／なん） what どれ which one どちら which option; which way どっち which option; which way どこ where いつ when どの which (+ noun) どんな what type of (+ noun) なぜ why どう how どうして why いくら how much いくつ how many The choice between nani and nan depends on the sound that follows. Generally speaking nan is used if the following sound is t, d, or n, as in nan-to “with what,” nan-de “with what,” and nan-no “of what.”

Wh expressions Wh compound words 何人（なにじん） what nationality There are also wh compound words that begin with nani or nan. 何人（なにじん） what nationality 何語（なにご） which language 何曜日（なんようび） which day of the week 何色（なにいろ） what color 何通り（なにどおり） what street 何線（なにせん） what line 何町（なにまち） what town 何県（なにけん） what prefecture 何州（なにしゅう） what state (in the US) 何大学（なにだいがく） what university 何新聞（なにしんぶん） what newspaper You can create a wh expression in which nani stands for the name of a location or institution.

Wh numeral expressions Wh expressions Wh numeral expressions Numeral expressions containing nan are also wh words. You can create any number of wh words using numeral expressions. Here are some examples. 何人（なんにん） how many people 何枚（なんまい） how many flat objects 何冊（なんさつ） how many volumes 何台（なんだい） how many vehicles 何匹（なんびき） how many animals 何度（なんど） how many times 何回（なんかい） how many times 何階（なんがい） how many floors 何本（なんほん） how many long objects 何才（なんさい） how old 何年（なんねん） how many years/which year 何月（なんがつ） which month 何日（なんにち） how many days/which day 何時（なんじ） what time 何分（なんぷん） how many minutes

Wh expressions Wh numbers 何億（なんおく） how many hundreds of millions And here are numbers with nan attached. 何億（なんおく） how many hundreds of millions 何千万（なんぜんまん） how many tens of millions 何百万（なんびゃくまん）how many millions 何十万（なんじゅうまん）how many hundreds of thousands 何万（なんまん） how many tens of thousands 何千（なんぜん） how many thousands 何百（なんびゃく） how many hundreds 何十（なんじゅう） how many tens 何億人（なんおくにん） how many hundreds of millions of people 何千回（なんぜんかい） how many thousands of times 何十年（なんじゅうねん）how many decades And they can be combined with counters to form wh counters.

Wh counters with mo or ka Wh expressions Wh counters with mo or ka If wh counters are combined with mo, they mean large numbers. 何億年も many millions of years なんおくねん 何万人も many tens of thousands of people なんまんにん 何千万円も many tens of millions of yen なんぜんまんえん 何十年も many decades なんじゅうねん 何百万匹か some millions of creatures なんびゃくまんひき 何十万冊か some hundreds of thousands of books なんじゅうまんさつ 何万人か some tens of thousands of people 何百回か some hundreds of times なんびゃっかい If combined with ka, they mean approximate numbers.