君が何言っているか全然分からないんですけど。
This sentence appears in the example sentences for ぜんぜん but my question is about the か that comes before it. What does this か do to the sentence?
Thanks
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It is functioning as an embedded question.
What you said I totally don’t understand…
In the case the か functions like what in my example.
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Thank you! I thought that was what it was doing, but I kind of thought that the whole sentence had to be a sentence in order for it to act that way. Thanks!
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No problem, there is a pattern in general too which is something like:(Interrogative + noun/verb phrase + か)
E.g.
‘What I ate’ did not sit well.
Notice these are not technically question phrases, it’s more that the interrogative word takes on a pronoun function.
‘Food’ did not sit well.
This has the same grammatical layout, just less specific.
If you ever see:
「何をするか、、、」
What whomever does…
「どこへ行くか、、、」
Where whomever goes…
「誰と合うか、、、」
Who whomever meets…
「いつにねるか、、」
When whomever sleeps,
「なんでその物あるか、、、」
Why whatever exists…
etc.
Try to think with this pattern in mind and it should help to parse the sentences.
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Also another good hint is that か rarely attaches to the infinitive forms of verbs when it functioning as the primary questions particle of a sentence.
どこに行くの？
どこに行きますか？
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