Who, what, when, where and why? In Japanese!

So This is going to be the first official Short Japanese lesson posts.

In the first post, I am going to explain the questions, Who, What, When, Where and Why.

Lets face it, you are definitely going to need to know how to ask a question when your in Japan, or be able to ask where or who someone is.

These will be written in Hiragana, as Hiragana is the character set used when writing Japanese native words.  Katakana on the other hand is the character set used when spelling words that are not originally from japan. For example the name Aron. Aron would be spelled as アロン not あろん.
Whilst you may be able to get away with spelling a foreign name in Hiragana, it really isn't advised to do that as Katakana is used for foreign words.

The first column down is the characters in Hiragana, whilst the second is the characters in Katakana.


あ　A　　ア
ろ　RO　  ロ
ん　N　　ン


Where

どこですか (doko desu-ka)

Do　ど
ko　こ
de　で
su　す
ka　か

どこ refers is translated into "Where" whilst ですか  is translated into "Is it"

What

なんですか　(Nan desu-ka)

na 　な
n　　ん
de　で
su　す
ka　か

なん refers to "What" whilst ですか again refers to "is it".

When

ときですか (Toki desu-ka)

To　 と
ki　き
de　で
su　す
ka　か

とき Refers to "when" and once again ですか refers to "is it"

Why

なぜですか (Naze desu-ka)

Na　 な
ze　ぜ    (Ze, is actually the DakuOn of the せ (se) character)
de　で
su　す
ka　か

なぜ refers to "why"

Who
だれですか　(dare desu-ka)

da　 だ   ( だ is actually the DakuOn of the た (ta) character)
re　れ
de　で
su　す
ka　か

だれ refers to "who"

Most of these phrases when in a conversation with a friend, do not need the "ですか" added to the end. However, it is much more polite to actually use the ですか ending when asking someone for information.

Once again; I hope this helps out anyone trying to learn some Japanese.

I will be trying to make 2-3 posts a week with a quick Japanese lesson (not so much a lesson as it is a little "did you know").

I encourage anyone who is learning Japanese to memorize the Hiragana and Katakana charts, as Romaji is truly horrendous and no one in japan will be able to read it.

Cheers

~Azazel