Check my Japanese please: asking questions

I am doing a presentation on Japanese self-study and I wanted to make a work sheet of good phrases that people can use to gain information about the Japanese language itself. I was hoping for two things:

1 correct any errors in my Japanese, or if you think there is a better way to phrase one of my sentences, please suggest it.

2 offer any of your own suggestions for useful questions similar to the ones I have created

Thank you in advance.



When asking how to pronounce a kanji that you cannot read:
あの漢字は何て読みますか？ ano kanji wa nante yomimasu ka?

When asking what A means:
Aってどういう意味ですか？ A tte dou iu imi desu ka?

When asking if A means B:
Aっていうのは、Bっていうことですか？ A tte iu no wa, B tte iu koto desu ka?

When confirming that A does mean B (or asking a roundabout question)
Aっていうのは、Bっていうことですね？ A tte iu no wa, B tte iu koto desu ne?

When asking how to say English word A in Japanese:
Aは日本語で何て言うのですか？ Aは日本語で何ですか？
A wa nihongo de nante iu no desu ka? A wa nihongo de nan desu ka?

When asking what third party (person or thing) A is saying:
Aは何て言ってるんですか？ A wa nante itteru n desu ka?

When rephrasing what someone else has said to make sure you understand:
Other Person: A。
You: Rephrased-Aっていうことですね？ A tte iu koto desu ne?

When asking what you should say in a certain situation (i.e., "when A")
A時、何て言えばいいんですか？ A toki, nante ieba ii n desu ka?

When asking what the opposite of A is:
Aの反対は何ですか？ A no hantai wa nan desu ka?

When asking if A means the same thing as B:
AはBと同じ意味ですか？ A wa B to onaji imi desu ka?

When asking if A is a commonly used word:
Aって、よく使っていますか？ A tte, yoku tsukattemasu ka?

You do know, of course, that って is slangy, and doesn't blend well with です or "getting around" phrase lists, right?

I wouldn't call it slangy since it is the only thing I ever hear anyone use...

Does it really not blend well with です？ I certainly would never write って (well, basically in any situation except quoting or recreating dialogue) with です at the end of the sentence, but I was under the impression that the two could be mixed and not sound unnatural if one was speaking. Or at least a って＿＿＿っすか type sentence could...

But please correct me if I am wrong, I do not want to teach unnatural Japanese...

JimmySeal said:

You do know, of course, that って is slangy, and doesn't blend well with です or "getting around" phrase lists, right?

Click to expand...

Hello Charles Barkley,
I think what Jimmy meant was that って sounds informal/conversational, and I agree. As you wrote, it is used quite often and I don't see anything wrong with its use with です. Having said that, if I were teaching Japanese to people at the beginner's level, I would rather teach them the polite/formal way and only AFTER they have mastered it, I would teach them how to make it sound casual.


When asking how to pronounce a kanji that you cannot read:
あの漢字は何て読みますか？ ano kanji wa nante yomimasu ka?
あの漢字は何と読みますか。

When asking what A means:
Aってどういう意味ですか？ A tte dou iu imi desu ka?
Aとは（or は）どういう意味ですか。

When asking if A means B:
Aっていうのは、Bっていうことですか？ A tte iu no wa, B tte iu koto desu ka?
Aというのは、Bということですか。

When confirming that A does mean B (or asking a roundabout question)
Aっていうのは、Bっていうことですね？ A tte iu no wa, B tte iu koto desu ne?
Aというのは、Bということですね/ですよね。

When asking how to say English word A in Japanese:
Aは日本語で何て言うのですか？ Aは日本語で何ですか？
A wa nihongo de nante iu no desu ka? A wa nihongo de nan desu ka?
Aは日本語で何と言うのですか/言いますか。

When asking what third party (person or thing) A is saying:
Aは何て言ってるんですか？ A wa nante itteru n desu ka?
Aは何と言っているのですか。

When rephrasing what someone else has said to make sure you understand:
Other Person: A。
You: Rephrased-Aっていうことですね？ A tte iu koto desu ne?
Aということですね。

When asking what you should say in a certain situation (i.e., "when A")
A時、何て言えばいいんですか？ A toki, nante ieba ii n desu ka?
＿＿＿時、何と言えばいいのですか。

When asking what the opposite of A is:
Aの反対は何ですか？ A no hantai wa nan desu ka?

When asking if A means the same thing as B:
AはBと同じ意味ですか？＊ A wa B to onaji imi desu ka?
＊If I were to say this in a more casual manner, I would say,
AとBって、同じ意味ですか。

When asking if A is a commonly used word:
Aって、よく使っていますか？ A tte, yoku tsukattemasu ka?
Aを、よく使いますか。 When talking about words, 使います sounds more natural than 使っています.

Thanks for the help Ashikaga (and you too Jimmy). I didnt know whether to put 使う or 使ってる so I made a guess with the help of yahoo.co.jp search that counted the number of hits. I will fix that one up...

One thing about this presentation is that it is for ALT's who have all been living in Japan for at least 10 months (and up to 34 months). Although there will be some beginner-level people in the class, most people will at least be familiar with hearing natural Japanese, and most people will be using it in rather casual situations. I expect a lot of this to be review, but I wanted to put down a concrete list of questions people can be confident with. Thank you for your suggestions, and if I decide to go with less casual questions, I will change them as you have suggested (though right now, 考え中）.

JimmySeal said:

You do know, of course, that って is slangy, and doesn't blend well with です or "getting around" phrase lists, right?

Click to expand...

I also hear って enough in です・ます level conversation not to consider it that out of place at all even in written discourse like online blogs or email. Especially ってことですか or ってことでしょう？really is so common as to almost be the standard, not the exception.