Question about てもいい

[zekken]

The page for てもいい lists these example sentences:

• お茶冷たくてもいい？
  • (with adjective) Is it okay even if the tea is cold?
• 焼きそばでもいいですか？
  • (with noun) Is it okay even if it is yakisoba?
• これ食べてもいいの？
  • (with verb) Is it okay if we eat this?

I’m unclear on when ですか or の is required when asking a question.

Is it always required with nouns and verbs? E.g., are the following incorrect?

• 焼きそばでもいい？
• これ食べてもいい？

Is it optional for adjectives, or should it never be used? E.g., is the following allowed or is it incorrect?

• お茶冷たくてもいいですか？

[mekomori]

no i like agree with this so much because the amount of times i am ONE hiragana character off and it marks me wrong, like damn, im so sorry i missed the な or よ particle
like damn, i understand particles are important but god, at least I remembered the kanji

@domi650

Hey, I just had this grammar point and when reviewing it “ことです” has been marked as wrong. This is weird because it is displayed as the polite equivalent to ことだ, there should at least be a warning that the casual version is wanted in that specific sentence.

yeah that happens like all the time btw, its very very specific to the sentences, so you have to pay attention to the sentences, even if it was the last word, which makes you thinkkkk you add です。 BUT THEN ITS ANOTHER PARTICLE, just make sure you read the sentence so you know if you end in like です、よ、な、た。 cause it really matters
also there is warnings its at the top of where the word is, it would be next to the ことです if its something you don’t know yet, if you have reviewed It before it slowllyyy, takes away hints and stuff, that’s probably why you didn’t get something that said (polite equivalent!!)
maybe because im a low level and most off the stuff gives me the meanings so i already know which one i have to use
I hope I answered your question, if I didn’t just ask lol

does this help or no?

@zekken

Is it always required with nouns and verbs? E.g., are the following incorrect?

• 焼きそばでもいい？* これ食べてもいい？

no. it matters on the sentences you are supposed to understand which is which by now but ofc forgetting stuff is normal

• 焼きそばでもいい？ uhm, im not quite sure what the first kanji is, so ill skip it but. idk that sentence looks wrong to me but don’t trust me im a lower level then you lol
  I think its the particles that are throwing me off because there’s like so many???
  ()kisobademoii? that just sounds wrong to me, personally.
  ()big drink de? too good, the big drink is too good? if that’s what it means lmao, personally I don’t know why the de is there buuuut I haven’t learned the importance of the de particle, I only know the particle ending です。 so take what you will with my explanation.

• これ食べてもいい？ this food(?) temoii? this food is also () good?
  idk what the べ is for and the て is for cause I haven’t learned that but it seems…? right to me?? idk I think there’s some particle problems doing on with your grammar lol

• Is it always required with nouns and verbs?
  no? im pretty sure it depends on the noun, the verb and if it connected to a kanji, if its not kanji, if it uses the on or kun reading and it depends on the sentence as well, so you really have to think about japenese grammar when you write it hurt a first don’t worry but It get easier when you understand japenese grammer lol use genki 1 and two ( watch videos online about it or buy the book yourself, unless you already have it) and youtube,
  use my paylist that I made lmao, im going to update soon on more stuff by game gengo

[CursedKitsune]

Neither are required to ask a question but both can be used depending on the context. It isn’t related to the てもいい grammar point nor to the type of word, by the way. の is used to ask questions when seeking an explanation but it can also sound quite soft and tends to be use by women more than men (when it’s on its own). ですか is just a polite way to ask a question. I suggest checking the Bunpro lessons for か and の (when used as question markers) and follow the more resources tab or search Google or YouTube or something as this is a topic that is well covered in many different places online. Let me know if you have any further questions though!

Also just to point out that in all these sentences the final word is an adjective (良い) - the thing that comes before てもいい is grammatically unrelated to what can come after いい. I hope that makes sense. Let me know if it doesn’t.

[CursedKitsune]

@mekomori

焼きそばでもいい？ uhm, im not quite sure what the first kanji is, so ill skip it but. idk that sentence looks wrong to me but don’t trust me im a lower level then you lol

The sentence is fine. It means “Is yakisoba alright?”. The word you can’t read yet is “yakisoba”.

@mekomori

これ食べてもいい？ this food(?) temoii? this food is also () good?
idk what the べ is for and the て is for cause I haven’t learned that but it seems…? right to me?? idk I think there’s some particle problems doing on with your grammar lol

That is the word 食べる (to eat) conjugated into the て form. There’s no issue with particles here, although this would be a casual spoken sentence as the particle after これ is dropped.

I appreciate your enthusiasm although I suspect your comment is probably a little confusing 笑

[mekomori]

idk what yakisoba, isnt that a japenese spice/drink

@CursedKitsune

I appreciate your enthusiasm although I suspect your comment is probably a little confusing 笑

thankkkss i try
yeah probably, it makes sense to me but it probably confusing to others LMAO

[Sidgr]

焼きそば is just fried noodles, but in American it tends to be a flavor haha.

It’s more just not quite clear what the comments from the other threads have in relation the OP’s question.

In regards to this thread.

Either is ok, in general 〜の? is more casua/ feminine (but not exclusively just not harsh) whereas 〜ですか? Is just neutral polite.

The thing is いい is an an adjective so it can technically stand on its own grammatically in Japanese, that’s why you will see example sentences without anything else.

[zekken]

To confirm, ですか/の is never required when asking a question using てもいい? So these sentences are grammatical?

• 焼きそばでもいい？
• これ食べてもいい？

Bunpro says:

Similarly to the てもいい grammar point that is used with verbs, this variant may also be used as a question. To do this, you simply need to follow てもいい with ですか, or the more casual の.

It is unclear if “need to follow” means ですか/の is actually required.

[Sidgr]

@zekken

To confirm, ですか/の is never required when asking a question using てもいい? So these sentences are grammatical?

• 焼きそばでもいい？
• これ食べてもいい？

Well the question mark is doing heavy lifting. In casual speech with a rising intonation yes you can just say that and it is perfectly acceptable. Bunpro is making a distinction between the statements:

食べてもいい。It is ok to eat (it).
食べてもいい？Is it ok to eat (it)?

And the ending particles disambiguate them.

[Jose7822]

Just to add to what others have said, you can have the following endings in this question:

焼きそばでもいいですか。(Polite form)
焼きそばでもいいのですか。(Polite Explanatory)
焼きそばでもいい？ (Casual)
焼きそばでもいいの？ (Casual Explanatory)

As was mentioned, i-Adjectives (いい in this case) don’t require a です at the end. The です copula is only there to make the sentence polite, that’s all it’s doing. You can simply end a sentence with an i-Adjective and be grammatically correct. If framed as a question, then make sure to add a “？” mark, when writing; or a rising intonation at the end, when speaking. Otherwise it is simply a statement, not a question.

The の particle, in this case (given that it has other functions), is working as a way to seek more information from the other person. It also makes the question sound softer. More often than not, you’ll see this の written as ん, as is 焼きそばでもいいんですか, so keep that in mind because this is VERY common.

As a side note, in anime, you’ll hear characters ask questions with just か, as in: 焼きそばでもいいか。However, this is a very direct question, and thus considered rude in Japanese, so while it is common to hear it like this in anime, it is not common in real life. Again, a way to soften this would be by adding の as in: 焼きそばでもいいのか。This would be OK too . Just thought you might wanna know.

HTH!

[Abliano]

pretty much exactly what I was going to add on, except you added more details than I could’ve lol

[Jose7822]

Man, what a coincidence! I wanted to come back and add more information about the か particle because what I said about it not being use in real life was a half truth. There is a way that Japanese people use か as a rhetorical question that is VERY common, and today I see Kaname post a video about it. Crazy!

Well, I’m glad I forgot to comment because I don’t think I could’ve explained it any better. Plus he has many example sentences of various situations. Here’s the video he posted earlier today:

か Is Not for Questions Only

If you’re not familiar with Kaname, I highly suggest you subscribe to his channel. His channel is a goldmine of real life Japanese expressions and how the language is actually used by natives, so you can sound more natural.

Enjoy!

[Ayara012]

@Sidgr

In casual speech with a rising intonation yes you can just say that and it is perfectly acceptable. Bunpro is making a distinction between the statements:

食べてもいい。It is ok to eat (it).
食べてもいい？Is it ok to eat (it)?

And the ending particles disambiguate them.

Popping in to second/third this; in spoken Japanese, your end intonation does a lot to indicate if something is question or a statement, even if someone is leaving off the actual か.

Some context examples:

• My students might ask me 聞いてもいいですか？ if they want to ask a question.
  They use the ですか because I’m a teacher and they’re being polite. I would probably just nod or say yes, but I could also use 聞いてもいい as an affirmative.

• I might ask one of my coworkers, say, 使ってもいい? if I wanted to use the printer they’ve just finished using. The rising intonation on いい, plus context/body language, makes it clear that I’m asking a question.

So, @zekken, those two sentences are grammatical, you just need to be aware of who you’re talking to and how polite you’re aiming to be.

And @Jose7822 , thanks for the video! That was a nice explanation of some of the stuff I hear coworkers use, lol.

[Jose7822]

BTW, another way you can use か with the Plain form without it being direct is via embedded questions (a question within a sentence). Example:

彼女が今どこにいるか分かりません。
I don’t know where she is now.

Or:

卓球の試合はいつか知っているの？
Do you know when the Table Tennis game takes place?

Notice that in the second sentence there’s an embedded question inside another question. You can do that as well. Since these uses of the か particle are rhetorical, they are not considered rude (similar to the video I posted above).

Anyway, the point is that you will see the use of the か particle directly connected to the Plain form in various ways, but try not using it as an actual question to someone else since it sounds too direct (unless it’s towards someone you’re close with, you’re trying to sound tough/masculine, etc).

OK, I promise that’s the last thing I’ll say about it, lol. It’s just that I keep running into it and remembering the other ways it’s used. Also, I don’t want people misinterpreting what I said, which is a problem created when not all the information is given. Hopefully now there’s enough information as to not cause confusion about what I mean.

Take care!

*Edited for clarification.