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I was surprised by this sentence:

> 桜の花が今年いつごろ咲くか発表がありました。  
>  There was an announcement saying approximately when the cherry blossom will
> come out this year.

We seem to have a question 桜の花がいつ咲くか directly modifying a noun 発表.

If I'd been asked to say this I'd probably have said:

> 桜の花が今年いつごろ咲くか **という** 発表がありました

Are either/both of these grammatically correct? What about formality etc?

**Edit:** Just read [this
question](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/30434/modifying-nouns-
with-question-phrases?rq=1) which seems to suggest that my modified sentence
is correct and that the original is wrong. But the original is from the NHK
news website, so I'd be surprised if it was wrong.
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grammar questions relative-clauses
Can a question directly modify a noun?
Consider the sentence 桜の花が今年いつごろ咲くか発表がありました as being the conjunction of two
sentences:

  * 桜の花が今年いつごろ咲く
  * 発表がありました

~~「か」is being used as a conjunctive particle in the particular case where the
first sentence indicates a question.~~

Reference: <http://www.japaneseammo.com/all-about-%E3%81%8B-its-not-only-a-
question-marker/>

Note: I have searched extensively for a reference listing か as a conjunctive
particle. However, I could not find any such grammatical explanation. I could
find one where it _wasn't_ listed:

  * <http://japanese-lessons.net/Japanese/grammar/Japanese-conjunctive-particles.html>

However, in all cases where か is serving as a conjunctive particle, it could
be replaced by かについて、and について is a conjunctive particle. E.g.

  * いついくか計画を作ろう → いついくかについて計画を作ろう
  * 答えるかどうか決定せよ → 答えるかどうかについて決定せよ

~~I suppose you could say that after か the real conjunctive について is just being
omitted, but even in that case then functionally speaking, か has come to serve
as a conjunctive particle.~~

**Post decision edit:**

broken headphones answer gives the correct functional role, which is
"adverbial clause", of 桜の花が今年いつごろ咲くか which modifies the predicate 発表がありました。I
also recommend his explanation of "adverbial clause" vs. "adverb" found
[here](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/38769/%E3%81%A6-form-and-
adverbial-meaning).

A separate, but related, issue is the form used to "conjoin" the adverbial
clause and the predicate, which also plays a role in expressing their
relation.  
For example, verb conjunctive form 「～て」、or conditional conjunctive form「～ば」.

**Do questions ending in ～か comprise a conjunctive form in their own right? **
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answer
No, this 桜の花が今年いつごろ咲くか doesn't modify 発表 but the predicate.

か-ending clause has not only function as nominal clause, but as adverbial too.
Thus,

> 桜の花が今年いつごろ咲くか発表がありました。  
>  _An announcement was made on approximately when the cherry blossom will
> come out this year._

Of course, your rephrased version works too, but 桜の花が今年いつごろ咲くかという発表 could be
ambiguous whether it tells when they bloom or it literally says "when do they
bloom".
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