How to say ‘which’ in Japanese

Maintaining and reviewing the database for all of the vocabulary used in リピート as well as seeing your error reports reveals a lot of confusing words in the Japanese vocabulary. There are a large number of synonyms if you can call them that.

I’ve decided to start a series looking into the differences and nuances between each of the terms that we use for the same word, and hopefully engage some more experienced Japanese learners and speakers to help us elucidate these nuances some more.

This is the first of that series.

There are four versions of ‘which’ in the current deck of cards:

どの、どれ、どっち、どちら

There are brief descriptions within the GENKI textbooks for each one of these terms, but I wanted to dive a bit deeper.

Let’s start with the basics:

• どの (dono) is used immediately prior to a noun. We would call this a demonstrative adjective, and like all adjectives, it should describe a certain object.

  • Ex. どの犬[いぬ]はあなたのですか？ (Which dog is yours?)
  • Nuance #1: どの人 (dono hito)— I wondered whether or not this could be used for people – it can. While we usually would use 誰「だれ」 (dare) to describe. All that I can find so far seems to indicate the difference between 誰[だれ] and どの人「ひと」seems to be identical between the English use of ‘which person’ and ‘who’. (Please let me know if you can illuminate this nuance for us some more.)
  • Nuance #2: どちらの (dochira no): どちらの is used sometimes as the more formal version of どの, but I can’t seem to find how frequently it is used.

• どれ (dore) is used to replace a noun, when there are three or more things to choose from.

  • Ex. 大[だい]中[ちゅう]小[しょうち]ありますがどれにしますか。(We have large, medium and small. Which do you want?)

• どっち (docchi) and どちら (dochira) are used when there are only two things to choose from. どっち is the more casual compared to the more formal どちら.

Saying ‘whichever’ in Japanese

• どれも (doremo), どちらも (dochira mo) and どっちも (docchimo), when used with a positive form means both. They mean ‘neither’ with a negative form.

  Unlike 何[なに]も, which means nothing, and is generally used with a negative form, you can use both the positive and negative form with these three words. ’も’ actually implies ‘all’, so in order to say neither, you’re effectively saying ‘all are not good.’

  • Ex. どれもいい (Both are good).
  • Ex. どれもよくない。(Both are not good, so neither is good.)

• 何「ど」れでも (doredemo), どっちでも (docchidemo) and 何方「どちら」でも (dochirademo) means either or whichever. でも implies one among several options.

  • Ex. 何[ど]れでもいい (Either is good).

Other uses of the same words.

As we said before, どちら is a very flexible word in the Japanese language:

• どちら is used as the more formal version of ‘where / which way’ (instead of どこ)

• どちら / どちら様「さま」 is also used as the more formal, honorific version of ‘who’ (instead of だれ)?

Bonus Slang:

• どれどれ (doredore) is a slang term. You can hear it used by gangster-like figures in Japanese shows, basically meaning ‘What do we have here?’

• どいつ (doitsu) is a slang / rude way of saying ‘which guy’ or ‘which person’ (not to be confused with ドイツ, or Germany).

Note: Please feel free to comment or add anything to what I have so far. I’ll update this as we learn more!