Asking About People and Ownership

だれ is the fundamental Japanese question word used to ask who someone is or whose an item is.

だれ is the fundamental Japanese question word used to ask about people. It functions as a noun and is often translated as who or whose in English. When you want to ask for a person's identity, you can use だれ as a simple predicate followed by ですか. In this pattern, the topic particle は sets up the event or person you are asking about, and だれですか asks for their missing identity.

When you need to ask who owns an item, you can connect だれ to a noun using the possession particle の. This creates the phrase だれの, which means whose. For example, だれのかばん asks whose bag. If the item you are asking about is already clear from context or marked as the topic, you can drop the noun entirely and simply use だれのですか to mean whose is it.

When だれ itself is the sentence subject, as in “who will come?” or “who is there?”, use the subject particle が. The normal pattern is だれが来ますか, not だれは来ますか. This is different from だれに, だれと, or だれの, because the particle changes according to だれ’s role in the sentence.

Because だれ acts like a regular noun, it can combine with various other particles to specify its role in the action. By attaching the particle と, you can ask who someone is doing an action with. Attaching the particle に allows you to ask who the target of an action is, such as who you are meeting. You can also use から to ask who gave you something or where you heard information from.

Although だれ is neutral and common in everyday conversation, Japanese has a polite counterpart for formal situations. When speaking to a superior, serving a customer, or asking about a respected guest, どなた is the better choice. Both words are often translated as who, but どなた shows a higher level of respect toward the person you are asking about.