This document provides grammar notes on using interrogatives like who, what, where with か or も in Japanese questions and negatives. It explains: 1) Interrogatives + か can mean something, somewhere, someone, anything, anywhere to ask if an action will occur, while interrogatives alone ask for a specific answer. 2) Interrogatives + も with a negative ending can express "nothing, no one, or nowhere" to negate an action. 3) Examples show なにか meaning "anything", どこか meaning "somewhere", and だれも meaning "no one".

1. 文法 LESSON 12 GRAMMAR NOTES
G1. INTERROGATIVES + か
You can use an interrogative word (e.g. who, what, where, etc.) + か to say something, anything,
someone, anyone, somewhere or anywhere.
Let’s take a look at the following sentences. What is different between the two of them?
S1. なにをのみますか。
S2. なにかのみますか。
Here’s the difference:
S1. なにをのみますか。
What will (you) drink?
The first sentence is based on the assumption that the person you are asking will drink
something, but you don’t know what she/he would like to drink.
S2. なにかのみますか。
will (you) drink something?
The second sentence shows that you do not know whether she/he would like to drink or not.
In short, the first question is finding out what she/he would like to drink, but the second question is
asking whether she/he would like to drink.
The same concept applies to the following interrogatives.
Ø Where: どこ
l どこに行きましたか。 (where did you go?)
l どこかに行きましたか。(did you go somewhere?)
Ø Who: だれ
l だれがいますか。 (who is there?)
l だれかいますか。 (is someone there?)

2. G2. INTERROGATIVES + も
As you leaned in G1, interrogative + か can mean something, somewhere, someone, anything,
anywhere or anyone.
When you use interrogative + も with a negative ending, you can express nothing, no one, or
nowhere.
Look at the examples:
なにもたべませんでした。
I did not eat anything (lit. I did not eat nothing.)*
いいえ、どこにもいきませんでした。
No, I did not go anywhere (lit. I did not go nowhere.)*
Careful with どこ, it will need a に in addition to も
だれもいません。
No one is there (lit. No one is not there.)*
*Note that the Japanese sentences use a double negative. This is not a mistake, this is grammatically correct in Japanese.
Because a double negative is not grammatical in English, we can not translate these sentences literally. The literal
translations are only provided to you as a guide.