What are the rules for where to put the question words relative to the particles? Ex: トイレはどこですか どこが一番寒いですか What is the difference in these two phrases that makes どこ appear before and after the particles?
English moves question words to the beginning of the sentence, instead of keeping them where they’d go in the sentence if it weren’t a question. Japanese does the latter.
If you try phrasing the answers to these questions in English, blanking out the thing you’re asking for, you’ll hopefully see what’s happening:
* “The toilet is (location).” * “(Location) is the coldest.”
In the first question, you know “the toilet is in a particular location”, but not which one. In the second, you know “a particular location is the coldest”, but not which one.
In both sentences, we start out by introducing what we’re talking about.
* **トイレ**はどこですか * **どこ**が一番寒いですか
In the first, we’re talking about the tray.
In the second, we’re talking about a location.
The first sentence isn’t easily restructured to put どこ in front.
The second can be restructured, with a slight shift in emphasis and an additional word needed.
* どこが一番寒いですか → * 一番寒い**所**はどこですか … or … 一番寒い**の**はどこですか
If we’re using the どこですか construction, we need to have a noun that we’re talking about. The most natural way to do that with our question here is to insert the noun 所 (*tokoro*, “place”). Alternatively, we could nominalize the 一番寒い by adding that の. This is less immediately natural and could cause confusion unless it’s clear from context already that you’re talking about places — another interpretation is that you’re asking *”where is the coldest one (of whatever we’re talking about)?”*
Don’t think about it as words before or after particles, that kind of thinking will make Japanese very difficult and confusing. Just think about the grammar and order of the sentence.
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*(obligatory fellow learner disclaimer)*
English moves question words to the beginning of the sentence, instead of keeping them where they’d go in the sentence if it weren’t a question. Japanese does the latter.
If you try phrasing the answers to these questions in English, blanking out the thing you’re asking for, you’ll hopefully see what’s happening:
* “The toilet is (location).”
* “(Location) is the coldest.”
In the first question, you know “the toilet is in a particular location”, but not which one. In the second, you know “a particular location is the coldest”, but not which one.
In both sentences, we start out by introducing what we’re talking about.
* **トイレ**はどこですか
* **どこ**が一番寒いですか
In the first, we’re talking about the tray.
In the second, we’re talking about a location.
The first sentence isn’t easily restructured to put どこ in front.
The second can be restructured, with a slight shift in emphasis and an additional word needed.
* どこが一番寒いですか →
* 一番寒い**所**はどこですか
… or …
一番寒い**の**はどこですか
If we’re using the どこですか construction, we need to have a noun that we’re talking about. The most natural way to do that with our question here is to insert the noun 所 (*tokoro*, “place”). Alternatively, we could nominalize the 一番寒い by adding that の. This is less immediately natural and could cause confusion unless it’s clear from context already that you’re talking about places — another interpretation is that you’re asking *”where is the coldest one (of whatever we’re talking about)?”*
Don’t think about it as words before or after particles, that kind of thinking will make Japanese very difficult and confusing. Just think about the grammar and order of the sentence.