What the difference between using か and が for a question?


So what's the difference between asking:

だれか？

And:

だれが？




Your question ultimately boils down to the difference between two particles: か
and が.

  * か is a question marker, and an indefinite marker. After an interrogative pronoun like だれ ( _"who"_ ), いつ ( _"when"_ ), or なに ( _"what"_ ), か forms the indefinite -- だれか ( _"*somewho"_ ⇒ _"someone"_ ), いつか ( _"*somewhen"_ ⇒ _"sometime"_ ), なにか ( _"*somewhat"_ ⇒ _"something"_ ).

  * が is mostly a subject marker (and sometimes, in archaic constructions, a kind of possessive linker between nouns). だれが would be _"who"_ as the subject of a sentence.




Your question ultimately boils down to the difference between two particles: か
and が.

  * か is a question marker, and an indefinite marker. After an interrogative pronoun like だれ ( _"who"_ ), いつ ( _"when"_ ), or なに ( _"what"_ ), か forms the indefinite -- だれか ( _"*somewho"_ ⇒ _"someone"_ ), いつか ( _"*somewhen"_ ⇒ _"sometime"_ ), なにか ( _"*somewhat"_ ⇒ _"something"_ ).

  * が is mostly a subject marker (and sometimes, in archaic constructions, a kind of possessive linker between nouns). だれが would be _"who"_ as the subject of a sentence.

