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I was practicing and tried to write the following sentence in Japanese: Anyone
playing games on PS4 or Switch?

> 誰でもPS4でゲームをやっていますか。スイッチでゲームをやっていますか。

A few minutes later my sentence was corrected to

> **誰か** PS4でゲームをやっていますか。スイッチでゲームをやっていますか。

Why was using 誰でも wrong here? I thought 誰でも meant anyone and 誰か meant someone.

Unfortunately the person who corrected me, presumably a native speaker,
couldn't explain it very well when asking the same question. It sounds like
they were trying to say I could only use 誰でも when presented with multiple
options. So now I'm just overall super confused
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2019-10-15T16:16:46.163
72527
2019-10-15T19:35:26.900
2019-10-15T19:35:26.900
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question
grammar word-choice particle-か particle-でも interrogatives
Confusion between 誰でも and 誰か
Be careful when translating to/from English because there is some overlap with
certain words like these.

**誰でも** means "anyone" in the sense of "whoever".

>   * マラソンに参加する人は誰でもTシャツをもらう → **Anyone who** / **Whoever** participates in
> the marathon will receive a T-shirt
>   *
> [MPAAレーティング・システムで「G」とは誰でも見られる作品です](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E3%83%AC%E3%82%A4%E3%83%86%E3%82%A3%E3%83%B3%E3%82%B0%E3%83%BB%E3%82%B7%E3%82%B9%E3%83%86%E3%83%A0-162265)
> → In the MPAA rating system, a "G" (movie) is one that **anyone** can watch
>

**誰か** means "anyone" in the sense of "someone".

>   * （暗い部屋に入ってひやひやと呼びかけて）誰かいる（の）？ → (Entering a dark room, calling out in
> fear) Is **anyone** （ **someone** ） here?
>   * 誰か助けて！ → **Somebody** help me!
>   * （落とした財布を拾いながら）誰かのものかな、これ… → (Picking up a dropped wallet) This must
> belong to **someone** (as opposed to being trash)...
>

So if you use these definitions, you can see your sentence is essentially the
same as my first example of 誰か; "whoever" doesn't make sense because that's
not what you're asking.
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2019-10-15T17:39:01.453
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2019-10-15T17:39:01.453
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answer