Asking questions in Japanese is simpler than in English in one way: you do not rearrange the sentence. You drop in a question word and add か at the end.
The core set
who
what
where
when
why
how
No word-order change
Where English flips "you are going" into "are you going", Japanese keeps the statement order and tacks か on the end. 行きますか (ikimasu ka) is "are you going?" The か is what turns it into a question.
Doko ni ikimasu ka. Where are you going?
Kore wa nan desu ka. What is this?
nani or nan
The word for "what" is written 何 and read either nani or nan depending on what follows. Before です and counters it usually becomes nan: 何ですか (nan desu ka), 何時 (nanji, what time). On its own it is often nani. Let the following sound guide you.
Which one
For "which", use どれ (dore) when choosing among three or more, and どっち (docchi) when choosing between two. The split mirrors a distinction English collapses into one word.
Test one of these examples in the translator and see how it comes out.
Open the Translator