It it correct / normal to use か after だ?


I've heard 'ですか' all too often in textbook Japanese.

I've personally never heard だ and か used together - only 'の' or a rising
intonation.

Eg:

> なまえはなんですか？ vs なまえはなんだか？

Is it normal/natural in the second case? How do you properly convey a question
in this case if not with か?




> なまえはなんですか？ vs なまえはなんだか？  
>  Is it normal/natural in the second case? How do you properly convey a
> question in this case if not with か?

As a simple interrogative sentence "What is [your name]?", 「[なまえ]はなんだか？」
doesn't sound natural/correct. You can instead say:

> [なまえ]は **なに** ？ -- friendly, gender-neutral  
>  [なまえ]は **なんだ** ？ -- relatively masculine, can be blunt  
>  [なまえ]は **なにか** ？ -- not common in daily conversation, might sound
> strong/harsh/rigid

Similarly, to say for example 「これは[誰]{だれ}の[傘]{かさ}ですか？」 "Whose umbrella is
this?" in the casual form:

> これは誰の傘？  
>  これは誰の傘だ？  
>  これは誰の傘か？  
>  (×これは誰の傘だか？)

* * *

As to yes-no questions, to say for example 「これは[山田]{やまだ}さんの傘ですか？」 "Is this
Yamada-san's umbrella?" in the casual form:

> これは山田さんの傘？ -- commonly used by both genders of all ages  
>  これは山田さんの傘か？ -- fairly common but I think it's more used by males, can sound
> blunt/strong  
>  (×これは山田さんの傘だ？ / ×これは山田さんの傘だか？)

