Nan vs. Nani: how to use them?

[derick78b]

Hello,

Some people say that it's impossible to know when you should use nan or nani, but I really don't think so.

Is that true? Is there any kind of rule about using NAN or NANI?



Thank you very much.

Derick.

 

[Toritoribe]

an example of the explanation
Some Questions on Japanese

 

[USMC0811]

Nan/Nani

Nan and Nani are essentially the same word and are interchangeable. Thing is that the Japanese tend to sometimes drop off the last vowel sound of a word, often saying things like "des" instead of "desu", "ich" instead of "ichi", and "nan" instead of "nani". I don't think it's grammatically incorrect either way, it's mainly what pronunciation is smoother for the sentence it is used.

For example, if you are just saying "What?", then it would be "Nani". If you are saying "What is it?" it would be "Nan des ka?" (spelled to show the the dropped vowel sounds). You will be understood either way, most likely.

 

[Toritoribe]

Don't you read our detailed discussion of how the meanings could be different between nani and nan, and when they are not interchangeable in the thread I linked above?:?

devoicing
Correcting my sentences

 

[vaotop]

As my knowledge, it is easy to differentiate

Nan uses when the sentence doesn't have any particle behind such as を、が、で、へ
Ex: Nan desu ka? (there is no particle after Nan)

And of course, Nani uses when there is a particle behind.
Ex: Nani ga suki desu ka?

 

[Toritoribe]

Your explanation is wrong, I'm afraid. For instance, "Nan de yomanai no?" or "Nani yonderu no?" are perfectly fine. I recommend you reading the thread I linked in my previous post. You can see that's not that simple. (I revised mojibake in the thread.)

 

[vaotop]

Your explanation is wrong, I'm afraid. For instance, "Nan de yomanai no?" or "Nani yonderu no?" are perfectly fine. I recommend you reading the thread I linked in my previous post. You can see that's not that simple. (I revised mojibake in the thread.)

OK! Thanks a lot!

 

[Toritoribe]

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