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Starting a sentence with a question word; particles が, の and は

T o n y

後輩
13 Dec 2012
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みなさんこんにちは。 Okay, so I'm confused. I've read that generally you don't start a Japanese sentence using a question word, but that there are times when it is acceptable or necessary. When is it actually acceptable or necessary?

I've also read that when a question word is the topic or first word in a sentence, the particle が must be used instead of は.

So when would the sentence 「あなたのくるまはどれですか、」 be said/written as 「どれがあなたのくるまですか」
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Would saying 「あなたのくるまはどれですか、」 be incorrect? I'm guessing context plays a big part in it?

And later this example is given to me: the sentence "Whose car is it?" is translated as 「だれのくるまですか。」 Shouldn't it have to be 「くるまはだれのですか、」 since you must make だれ possessive with の and the particle after the question word must be が? (Or is it different since the particle is の and not は specifically?) Is a sentence such as that an exception, and if so why?

😅 I'm sorry if my thoughts seem convoluted, I'd really appreciate your help!
 
Both あなたのくるまはどれですか and どれがあなたのくるまですか are correct and mean almost the same.
Usually important words (i.e. what the speaker want to focus on) comes first.
When talking about 'your car' in front of many cars, one would ask 'which one?', then どれがあなたのくるまですか.
When you are talking with a friend in front of many cars, and you know some of them belong to the people you know and that one of the car belongs to your friend. You would ask あなたのくるまはどれですか.

Same goes with だれのくるまですか and くるまはだれのですか.
If anything, だれのくるまですか is more common, くるまはだれのですか implies that there are other things that you know which belongs to whom but you do not know about the car. So you're asking (Then, how about this car? Whom this car belongs to?).

Hope the above examples make sense. 😌
 
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