# What does this か mean? **URL:** \ **Category:** Grammar\ **Created:** [September 25, 2019, 4:40am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/what-does-this-%E3%81%8B-mean/39208 "2019-09-25T04:40:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ABCDEFGHIJ](https://cdck-file-uploads-global.s3.dualstack.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/wanikanicommunity/original/3X/f/d/fd4c154120954695f788402f3bcf4e616499bc2d.png) [@ABCDEFGHIJ](https://community.wanikani.com/u/ABCDEFGHIJ)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2019, 4:40am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/what-does-this-%E3%81%8B-mean/39208/1 "2019-09-25T04:40:34Z")
Here is the sentence. すると、手を振っていた者はロレンスが自分のほうに向かって歩き始めたことに気がついたのか、手を振ることをやめたようだが自分から歩こうとはしない。 I thinking that it is “or”. However, I’m not 100% sure. Thanks for any help! ---
**Author:** ![Vanilla](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/vanilla/32/521468_2.png) [@Vanilla](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Vanilla)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2019, 6:36am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/what-does-this-%E3%81%8B-mean/39208/2 "2019-09-25T06:36:56Z")
I recognize this from spice and wolf. This is when he meets the knight, yeah? I just read this a little while ago. So this か is hard to explain, but it doesn’t really mean “or”. So か can be used after a clause to make like an embedded question. Lawrence isn’t sure that he noticed him, but hes sorta wondering if thats the case (hence why he stops waving). I don’t really think I did a good job explaining that, but hopefully if you still don’t understand I can maybe answer some questions you have or someone else has a better explanation. Just in case you’re maybe missing something from the rest of the sentence, heres how I would translate the sentence entirely: " The waving person (appeared to) stopped waving after seemingly noticing lawrence begin to walk in his direction, but he didnt bother to walk (towards lawrence). ---
**Author:** ![Saida](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/saida/32/348936_2.png) [@Saida](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Saida)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2019, 6:39am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/what-does-this-%E3%81%8B-mean/39208/3 "2019-09-25T06:39:08Z")
か(どうか) is comparable to English ‘whether(or not)’ ---
**Author:** ![Vanilla](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/vanilla/32/521468_2.png) [@Vanilla](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Vanilla)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2019, 6:42am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/what-does-this-%E3%81%8B-mean/39208/4 "2019-09-25T06:42:02Z")
> [@Saida](#): > > か(どうか) is comparable to English ‘whether(or not)’ I dont think its かどうか with the どうか omitted, though ---
**Author:** ![ABCDEFGHIJ](https://cdck-file-uploads-global.s3.dualstack.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/wanikanicommunity/original/3X/f/d/fd4c154120954695f788402f3bcf4e616499bc2d.png) [@ABCDEFGHIJ](https://community.wanikani.com/u/ABCDEFGHIJ)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2019, 6:52am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/what-does-this-%E3%81%8B-mean/39208/5 "2019-09-25T06:52:18Z")
Ah, no worries about explaining. I know about that か, too. Thank you! Just my head looked at it like “It seemed like A or B, but…” then wouldn’t view it a different way :(. Yeah, it is from that! ---
**Author:** ![Vanilla](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/vanilla/32/521468_2.png) [@Vanilla](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Vanilla)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2019, 6:55am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/what-does-this-%E3%81%8B-mean/39208/6 "2019-09-25T06:55:08Z")
> [@Wol](#): > > Ah, no worries about explaining. I know about that か, too. Thank you! > > Just my head looked at it like “It seemed like A or B, but…” then wouldn’t view it a different way :(. > > Yeah, it is from that! Glad my post was able to make some sense! EDIT: I just realized I could look for the official translation of that sentence. Same thing as I said, but they used “perhaps” rather than “seemingly”. Still that idea of “probably the case that x happened, but not sure” > Perhaps having realized that Lawrence was now headed his way, the figure stopped waving but made no move to approach. ---
**Author:** ![Saida](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/saida/32/348936_2.png) [@Saida](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Saida)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2019, 9:36am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/what-does-this-%E3%81%8B-mean/39208/7 "2019-09-26T09:36:36Z")
Now I understand! We had a sentence like thst in Japanese class too, a coulle months ago. It was about people getting scammed to make payments. コンピューターシステムのトラブルによるものか、内部ないし外部からの情報引き出しによってか、データ流失が起きたものとみられる。 But now that I see the two か’ s in there, I am not sure anymore… ---
**Author:** ![Vanilla](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/vanilla/32/521468_2.png) [@Vanilla](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Vanilla)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2019, 5:41am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/what-does-this-%E3%81%8B-mean/39208/8 "2019-09-27T05:41:44Z")
> [@Saida](#): > > But now that I see the two か’ s in there, I am not sure anymore… Well for this one it means “or”. Like “Be it x _or_ y”. か can be used in a few different ways, so its really just looking at the rest of the sentence to see which one makes more sense. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/original/4X/6/2/a/62a8b0f4c59ff2c5b6651ffcf43531480b3e5297.png) [@system](https://community.wanikani.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2020, 5:41am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/what-does-this-%E3%81%8B-mean/39208/9 "2020-09-26T05:41:56Z")
Closed on September 26, 2020, 5:41am UTC This topic was automatically closed 365 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.