Confusion for a beginner learning Japanese. Is “onamae wa?” the same as “onamae ka.” ? I was taught that ‘ka’ replaces question marks, but only see onamae with ‘wa?’

6 comments

1. It does. But *onamae wa* is just shortening *onamae wa Nan desu ka*. Think of it like saying “your name?”

   Get used to the real casual Japanese shortening things, or just leaving them out all together.

   Edit: that last sentence sounded angry when I read it back. I didn’t mean it that way.

2. I think the other comments have got you covered, but [here is a great site](https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/learn-hiragana/) for learning hiragana if you haven’t already

3. sorry, does no one else have trouble with ‘onamae ka’?

   the only sense i can imagine that being used is if someone – after being asked what their name was – just repeated the word questioningly as if to say, ‘you wanna ask my name, do you?’

4. “onamae wa” is short for “onamae wa nan desu ka” as in “What is (your) name?” Here the “your” is implied and can actually be something other than “your”, depending on the context.
   “onamae ka” feels like it’s short for “onamae desu ka” as in “(Are you) asking about (the) name?” The only possible scenario I can think of off the top of my head is when someone asked for your name and you are repeating their question, but usually the “o’ is left off if you are leaving the “desu” off. Actually the “ka” might come off too if you are being that casual. But then you might need to ask additional clarifying questions as follow ups.

   It just feels wrong is what I’m saying.

5. onamae wa has the same feeling as ellipses. “Your name is….?” The ka part is implied.

   Ka has a definitive feel whereas ending a question with wa has a searching feel.

6. if you were to add ka to the end such as “namae ka?” I feel like that would be questioning if what someone just said is a name.