Nani mono da?

[nihonmaru]

I often heard this phrase from anime, which in literal English translation means "Who are you?"

Shouldn't it be "What are you?" since a person is asking another person, like are you a creature or something instead of who are you, it just sounded weird. Somebody please enlighten me.

 

[Mike Cash]

The cause of your confusion:

物 (もの)

者 (もの)

 

[nihonmaru]

The cause of your confusion:

物 (もの)

者 (もの)

So person can either be "hito" or "mono"?

 

[Mike Cash]

So person can either be "hito" or "mono"?

Yes.