俗Voice and politeness
Casual speech
Among friends, Japanese questions and sentence endings change completely. Some are also associated with male or female speech.
Casual questions
か usually disappears
かい and だい sound rather old-fashioned, friendly and masculine today. You'll mostly hear them from older men, or in books.
| Type | Polite | Casual, rising tone | Some men's speech |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yes or no | 行きますか | 行く？ | 行くかい |
| Yes or no, noun | 学生ですか | 学生？ | 学生かい |
| Question word | どこですか | どこ？ | どこだい |
| Question word, verb | どこに行きますか | どこ行く？ / どこ行くの？ | どこに行くんだい |
かい vs. だい
Yes-or-no, or question word?
Going home already?
かい is for yes-or-no questions.
Where are you off to?
だい goes with question words.
Everyday casual
What most people use
Are you free today?
Just drop です and raise your voice.
Where are you going?
の softens a question and is used by everyone.
What are you reading now?
This is tasty, isn't it?
Sentence endings
Traditionally gendered, though it varies
This varies a lot by age, region and person. Today, people of all genders mix these, and わ is much rarer in everyday speech than in fiction.
| Ending | Example | Traditionally |
|---|---|---|
| わ | 行くわ | Women, soft assertion |
| だよ / だぞ | 雨だよ | Men (だよ is broadly used) |
| の | 行くの | Women and children, explanation |
| かしら / かな | 行くかしら | Women / anyone |
わ
A soft assertion
I'm going.
It comes after a statement, never after a question or a volitional form.
Isn't it pretty.
わ comes before ね and よ.
When to use which
Know it to understand it
You'll meet these often in books, anime and manga, where they signal a character's age, gender or personality. In your own speech, it's safest to stick to plain forms with rising tone, or the question の, until you've heard how the people around you speak.
Check yourself
How would you make it polite?
Your turn
かい or だい?
Is this yours?
Say it yourself
With a close friend
Ask a close friend casually if they're free tomorrow, and where they want to go.
Automatic feedback on your own answers is coming to Premium.