するとき or 何時?

[derick78b]

Hello guys,

Can you please tell me how to use the word "When" in japanese.

Searching I found 2 types: "surutoki" and "itsu".

Can I use any of them to mean "when"?


Thanks.

 

[Coffeesan]

I would also love to know this lol most words like ''when'', ''how'', ''what'' etc have like 3 or 4 meanings and really the best thing you can do is ask case by case on here as books and the net dont explain anything -_- I always thought when was implied some how in the verb/noun/adjective because they have so many special tenses and forms that we dont have in English.

 

[Mike Cash]

I was hoping the words in the subject would be included in the body of your post. Unfortunately, Tapatalk renders the subject line in the wrong character set.

 

[Petaris]

Mike, I'm glad I'm not the only one seeing that issue. I hope they fix it soon.

 

[Toritoribe]

Roughly speaking, いつ is used as an interrogative or for interrogative clauses, whereas とき is for adverbial clauses.

When did you come to Japan?
いつ日本に来たんですか？

I don't know when he came to Japan.
彼がいつ日本に来たのか知りません。

When he came to my house, I wasn't there.
彼がうちに来たとき、僕はいませんでした。

 

[derick78b]

Toribe, thanks a lot!


But if I use 彼がとき日本に来たのか知りません。, would that be wrong or just "weird"?

Thank you once more.

 

[Toritoribe]

Your sentense doesn't make sense at all in the first place. See my example sentences.

〇彼がいつ日本に来たのか
〇彼がうちに来たとき
✕とき彼が日本に来た/彼がとき日本に来た

彼が日本に来たとき is correct also as a noun clause, but this とき is not used for "when" in "when he came to Japan". It's more close to "the time (when) he came to Japan". For instance, 彼が日本に来たときのことを知りません means "I don't know about the time when he came to Japan".

 

[derick78b]

Oh,

Thanks. Now I got it.

Thank you.