Home Forums The Japanese Language use of のか and のかなど in list

This topic contains 1 reply, has 2 voices, and was last updated by  coclans 10 years, 11 months ago.

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  • #42794

    キース
    Member

    Hey everyone, I have a question about the sentence below… What is the grammatical function of the のか and のかなど in this list? It’s written by a Japanese woman at my university who I exchange emails with. The context is that she wants me to write her emails while I’m visiting Paris about what I do, eat, and learn. Couldn’t she have written this sentence using ‘たり’ form? (i.e. 飲んだり、食べたり、見たりします。)

    どんなことをしているのか、何を食べているのか、何を考えているのかなど、いろいろおしえてください。

    I understand the meaning of the sentence (What you do, what you eat, what you learn, and the various other things, tell me please); it’s just that I don’t know the purpose of のか and のかなど.

    • This topic was modified 10 years, 11 months ago by  キース.
    #42796

    coclans
    Member

    たり form is used for making a list of verbs or state-of-being. This list is not-exhaustive.

    昨日はパンを食べたり、映画を見たり、音楽を聞いたりした。
    Yesterday I ate bread, I watched a movie and I listened to music (among other things).

    It’s different from what your sentence is trying to achieve. The のか completes the question parts of your sentences (“what you do”, etc.). など is separate and it means “et cetera”.

    どんなことをしているのか、何を食べているのか、何を考えているのかなど、いろいろおしえてください。
    Please tell me what you do, what you eat, what you think etc.

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