Questions

There is no inversion, no do-support and no change of word order. You add か to the end of the sentence and you are done.

か

田中さんです。 — He's Tanaka. 田中さんですか。 — Is he Tanaka?

Japanese does not use a question mark in formal writing — か already marks it. In casual writing ？ shows up constantly.

Casual: drop か, raise your voice

Between friends, か sounds stiff. Instead the sentence rises, exactly as in Georgian or French:

食べる？ taberu? — eating? / will you eat? 行った？ itta? — did you go?

Adding の (or んですか politely) softens a question into "so, is it that…?":

どうしたの？ dō shita no? — what's up? (interested, gentle)

Question words

They stay exactly where the answer would go — nothing moves to the front:

何を食べますか — what will you eat? (何 is sitting in the object slot) 誰が来ますか — who is coming? どこに行きますか — where are you going?

If you can say the answer, you can say the question: just swap the answer word for the question word.

Question words take が, never は

✗ 誰は来ましたか ✓ 誰が来ましたか

And the answer keeps が too: 田中さんが来ました. See Prepositions for why.

こそあど — the pointing system

Japanese organises "this / that / that over there" into a grid you can predict:

Learn the four columns once and you get twenty words. そう is the yes of Japanese conversation: そうです — that's right; そうですか — is that so; そうですね — well, let me see.

Answering

And remember the flip on negative questions: はい agrees with the statement, not with the action. 行きませんか — はい、行きません. "Yes, I'm not going." See Negation.

Embedded questions

Use か + どうか for a yes/no question inside a sentence:

来るかどうか分かりません — I don't know whether he's coming. 何を食べるか決めましたか — Have you decided what to eat?

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