何

Meaning in English

what

Stroke order

Animated kanji stroke order

何

Illustrated Dictionary

Sentence

Related sentences

N3 彼が静かなことから何か考えていると分かった Kare ga shizuka na koto kara nanika kangaete iru to wakatta Noticed he thinking because quiet N4 彼は何か心配しているように見える Kare wa nanika shinpai shite iru you ni mieru He looks like he is worried about something N3 疲れすぎて何もできませんでした。 Tsukaresugite nanimo dekimasen deshita. I was too tired and could not do anything. N3 彼が何を言いたかったのかあとでやっと分かった Kare ga nani o iitakatta no ka ato de yatto wakatta Later I finally understood what he wanted to say N4 失敗したとしても、何もしないよりはいいと思う Shippai shita to shite mo, nani mo shinai yori wa ii to omou Even if it fails, I think it is better than doing nothing N4 先生に分からないところは何度でも聞いていいと言われた Sensei ni wakaranai tokoro wa nando demo kiite ii to iwareta The teacher said I can ask as many times as needed when I do not understand N4 これは何ですか。 Kore wa nan desu ka. What is this? N5 学生は何人いますか。 Gakusei wa nannin imasu ka. How many students are there? N5 あなたは何時に来ますか。 Anata wa nanji ni kimasu ka. What time do you come?

Dictionary

Word context

What it means

What does 何 (nani) mean? 何 is the basic Japanese interrogative meaning 'what' and serves to ask about identity, nature, choice, or quantity in questions, functioning as a versatile question word across spoken and written Japanese.

Main meanings

1. Used as a bound morpheme in compounds and set phrases to convey vague or indefinite meanings such as 'some' or 'any'.
2. Before counters and certain words it often shifts to a phonetic variant and asks for numerical or quantitative information.
3. Appears in exclamatory or emphatic forms to express surprise, complaint, or rhetorical questioning.
4. Can form part of idiomatic expressions that change the nuance from literal 'what' to fixed meanings (e.g., pointing to a topic or expressing exasperation).

How to use it

Common in both spoken and written language, it appears in casual questions, polite/formal questions, before counters (with a different phonetic form in some cases), and inside compound words and idioms; choice of reading and politeness level depends on grammar, surrounding particles, and whether it's in conversation, written text, or set expressions.

Variants and close terms

何か (nanika) — something/anything
何でも (nandemo) — anything/no matter what
何故 (naze) — why (formal/neutral)
どれ (dore) — which (selecting among items)
いくつ (ikutsu) — how many/how old (when counting)

Composition

The kanji combines the person radical 亻 (suggesting relation to people or agents) with the phonetic/semantic component 可; 亻 indicates an association with persons or actions, while 可 contributes sound and a sense of possibility/permission, together forming the character used for the interrogative concept.

Etymology

何 entered Japanese as a Chinese character; its Sino-Japanese (on) reading developed from Middle Chinese phonology and appears in Japanese as (ka), while the native pronunciation evolved separately into the modern interrogative readings.

Origin

The character and its interrogative use arrived with the Chinese writing system during the Asuka–Nara period (circa 5th–8th centuries) and became established in classical Japanese literature and official documents, where it was used to pose questions and form grammatical constructions preserved into modern Japanese.

Word class

Interrogative pronoun (疑問詞)

Word

Related words by kanji and components

N3 何とか nantoka somehow, anyhow, one way or another N5 何人 nannin how many people N5 何～ nan～ what sort of ~ N5 何〜 nan what kind of, how many, before counters

Kanji