The Japanese question marking particle “か” is used to indicate a question. It is similar in function to the English question mark.

In Japanese, questions are formed by changing the intonation or adding question words, but to make it clear that a sentence is a question, the particle “か” is added at the end of the sentence.

Example 1: あなたは日本語(にほんご)を話(はな)しますか？ – Do you speak Japanese?

Example 2:これはいくらですか？ – How much is this?

Example 3:何時(なんじ)に来(き)ますか？- What time will you come?

An affirmative sentence can be turned into a question by adding か. Unlike English, the word order does not have to change to form a question. In traditional writing, punctuation does not change either.

Example 4

今日はいい天気です。The weather is nice today.

今日はいい天気ですか。 Is the weather nice today?

In informal/casual speech か might be omitted; the intonation will indicate whether or not it’s a question. In manga, when か is omitted, but a character is asking question, a question mark will be placed.

Example 5