Genki 1 lesson 9 level. qualifying nouns with verbs

Japanese Language Grammar
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hi guys, i got to Genki 1 Lesson 9 (duh?!) and i learned that i can qualify nouns with the plain form of a verb in order to say things Like:

the person who is eating a pizza is doing etc… → ピザを食べている人は○○

or the evergreen: person reading this is stupid → これを読んでいます人はバカです。
(there might be more than one errore both in the english and in the japanese sentences :sweat_smile: oh and sorry i don’t know how to type in furigana)

now my question is: can i do the same in order to modify question word to say things like: who is eating pizza… → ピザを食べているだれ○○

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You used the polite form there. As you noted, it needs to be the plain form.

You don’t need a relative clause to express the English sentence you provided. だれがピザを食べている would achive it.

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thank you so much.

and i feel so dumb now…

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however, if i would like to continue the sentence like, “who wear glasses is cute”, how can i do it ?
だれがめがねをかけているはかわいいです is correct ?

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“The person who is wearing glasses is cute” would be
メガネをかけている人はかわいいです

“Who wear glasses is cute” is not a possible English sentence. And だれ is not used at all in this kind of “who” formation.

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no? really? sorry then, and thankyou

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If you’re trying to ask “who is the cute person wearing glasses” it would be めがねをかけているかわいい人は誰ですか。

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Maybe you meant “Whoever wears glasses is cute”, though that’s also a bit awkward - “anyone who wears glasses is cute” would be better, or “people who wear glasses are cute”. In both of these cases, the word “who” is marking the subordinate clause “wear(s) glasses” as modifying “anyone/people”, in the same way that メガネをかけている modifies 人 in @Leebo’s example sentence, rather than the question word “who”. That’s simply one of the two ways that noun-modifying phrases work in English.

When the noun being modified is not a person, you’ll also see “that” or “which” perfoming the same function. “The book which is on the chair” = 椅子の上にある本

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oh i see, thankyou

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Not sure if this has been answered already, I only skimmed through the answers, but I’ve seen this used before, e.g. in Violet Evergarden:

私が知らない誰かの手紙なんでしょ？
お見舞いもこない誰かよ

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That’s 誰か, though, rather than 誰. Someone, rather than who. It has 誰 in it, but it’s not really a question word.

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Good point, didn’t really stop to consider that someone / 誰か is actually a pronoun not a question word :see_no_evil:

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I guess 誰 is also technically a pronoun, but I assume they are in different grammatical categories somehow.

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