"Shall I make something?"
Translation:何かつくりましょうか？
30 Comments
The word 何か means "something," as opposed to 何 by itself meaning "what." Other question words can also be modified with か in this way. To name a few examples:
どこ=where, どこか=somewhere
いつ=when, いつか=someday
だれ=who, だれか=someone
なぜ=why, なぜか=for some reason
What would be the difference between "nanika" and "nanimo" etc.? (And also if someone could explain me how I can write in japanese on duolingo that'd be great :) )
18
Regarding the difference between なにか and なにも, I'll copy @KagayakuSeiza's example above and add to it.
どこ=where, どこか=somewhere; どこも = everywhere/anywhere (with a positive verb) or nowhere (with a negative verb)
いつ=when, いつか=someday; いつも = always, every time (with a positive verb) or never (with a negative verb)
だれ=who, だれか=someone; だれも = everyone/anyone (with a positive verb) or nobody/no one (with a negative verb)
And for your specific question:
なに = what; なにか = something; なにも = anything/everything (with a positive verb) or nothing (with a negative verb)
Not sure about the difference between 何か and 何も, but if you go in your phone's input/keyboard settings, it should give options to install additional language keyboards.
What OS are you using? At least on my Android I downloaded the Google Japanese keyboard from google play
I'm not entirely sure, but I think adding the 'mo' particle at the end of those question verbs 'negates' them. So 'nanimo' would be nobody.
You can edit your comments normally. :) If you want to avoid commenting your comments I mean. Ahah
As said here before, you need to download the Japanese Google Keyboard. It's available at googleplay.
if you go into your phone or other device's language/keyboard setting, there should be a way to allow more than just english typing
You should go on the PC version for that I think. You have way more option to write in Japanese during the lessons than on any portable device. And then the same applies, you can add keyboards and languages on Windows or Mac or Linux.
Why is it incorrect to use the direct object particle (を) like 何かをつくりましょうか？
that's what i thought it should be since it's mashou and not masu, I've always heard mashou as being we.
Dang it. I was supposed to translate into japanese with the cards, and I would have got it, but I missed a [う] after [ましょ] :S Tricky of them to split that apart
Sneaky, but I think they should do that a lot more, break them up, give them as individual characters, give similar looking blocks. I find it's too easy to grab the right card while only actually having learned the first character in a word. Being able to increase the difficulty as you go along would be great!
