24496
I'm becoming increasingly confused about the correct way to form questions in
informal speech. I originally learned that I should replace か with の. Then I
learned that that was a bit girly. Then I learned that I didn't need a
particle at the end at all, I should just raise the intonation. Another book
told me I should be using かい and だい. And finally, it seems I can use か after
all. What is the truth here? What do everyday Japanese people do (let's stick
with Tokyo dialect)? Just to confuse things further, I'm familiar with the
concept of the explanatory の, but how does that interact with all these
schemes?
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-05-24T10:10:19.333
24495
2017-03-03T21:26:37.227
7944
question
nuances particle-の questions particle-か
Use of question particles in plain speech
の sounds a little feminine but you can use it if you're male - so long as のか
could also be used (兄弟いるの？ you can say but not どういう事ですの？) It also has somewhat
of an implication of asking for an explanation sometimes (何やってるの？ - What are
you doing [and why]?)

Asking without a particle is probably most common informally - 手伝う？ It has no
real hidden implications, so feel free to use it.

かい and だい are largely used by male speakers very informally, with people their
own age or younger. They sound soft. かい is used for yes/no questions and だい
for open ended questions - remember that だい has an origin related to だ, so you
can only use it where you could use だ. Saying どうだい？ is fine, as is どこへ行くんだい？,
but not 何してるだい？ Another note is that かい can very occasionally be used for non-
yes/no questions. Anyway, these two are less popular among the younger
generation.

か sounds somewhat agressive in plain speech - それが名前か？ It would probably be
best not to use it unless you wanted to make your anger clear. However,
following a volitional, it is far less agressive (and often pronounced っか with
the volitional おう shortening to お). 行こうか？ It's also masculine speech in plain
form besides following volitionals. The last note is that, in writing, where
the plain form is usual, か is the usual way to ask questions, and usually
followed by a full stop - なぜ行ったか。
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-05-24T10:57:51.550
24496
2017-03-03T21:26:37.227
2017-03-03T21:26:37.227
9971
9971
24495
answer