Question-phrase + か - Grammar Discussion

including questions within sentences

Structure

  • Question-phrase + + わかる, おぼえていない, しっている, etc.

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:warning: Do not attach だ or です to nouns or な-adjectives preceding か

[Questions within sentences are in short form・だ is usually dropped after a な-adjective or noun and before か・かどうか is used when the question word is not present and in ‘if/whether or not’ questions]

僕がどこにいる わかる?

Hello,

About this example: 彼が誰のことを好きかわかりません。
Shouldn’t it be like this: 彼は誰のことが好きかわかりません。?

Hey, long time no see! :grin:

Both are acceptable.

When you embed a question within the larger sentence it is OK to mark the object of liking with を instead of が。
It is also OK to do this normal way and use が instead. Same applies to 嫌い.

(私は)彼が誰のことが好きかわかりません。:+1:
(私は)彼が誰のことを好きかわかりません。:+1:

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Why does this grammar point use green instead of orange and yellow?

image

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かどうか (and possibly some other grammar points that I don’t know yet) should probably be included in the related grammar points. Vice versa, this grammar point should be included on the かどうか page I think.

EDIT: It’s also covered by Tae Kim’s guide to grammar here, so that should probably also be added to the readings!

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@DonChanHype Thank you for your comment! I have added かどうか and some other grammar points to the related section. I have also included the Tae Kim link that you provided in the Readings section. Cheers!

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Thanks as always! :slight_smile:

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It might be helpful to include sentences that use the nominalization のか as well, since I’ve been getting confused when seeing that out in the wild. For example, this WaniKani sentence: 「字がきたなすぎて、薬方に何が書いてあるのかさっぱり分かりません。」

In this grammar point, か comes right after the verb, with no nominalizer, but のか can happen as well, right?