The Japanese person next to me just looked at 何がする and said こんな言葉ある？？
My reaction was pretty much the same.

何をする would not typically mean "What are (you) doing." Typically, that would be 何（を）して（い）る（の）？

Well, google search gives examples of 何がする, but I don't know what would that mean.

Rayath wrote:

Well, google search gives examples of 何がする, but I don't know what would that mean.

I was looking at those yesterday when I first read this thread -- a lot of them are false positives, and others are very suspect (either typos or a non-native speaker).

が is not interrogative.

Last edited by yudantaiteki (2012 August 22, 7:08 pm)

Yeah, 何ガする is pretty funky... My guess is "Something is doing it". There's a lot of context that's lacking.

It's weird, because if you use 何 in 何がする, one would expect an object and not a person to do the action of する (が is a particle that identify the subject of the verb it is linked to). Except that an object doesn't "do", basically you're asking "what object did that?", but you didn't even specify a "that". The question "What object did" is incomplete and calls for more information.

Like nadiatims said, with smells and sounds it could work.

何がそのいい香りをしてるの？
(lit) What is doing this nice smell?

Here we added そのいい香りを, which basically change the vague verb "する" (to do) to a whole verb sentence "いい香りをする" (to do a nice smell). Which makes sense for an object.


Regarding the difference between を　and が, it's about what word is the subject (suffixed by が), i.e. doing the action, and what word is the direct object (suffixed by を), i.e. being subject to that action. The meaning is completely different.

I would say it's rather そのいい香りがするのは何（ですか）。 Not sure if this is grammatically ok, though. Just a feeling..

Warp2243 wrote:

Tori-kun wrote:

I would say it's rather そのいい香りがするのは何（ですか）。 Not sure if this is grammatically ok, though. Just a feeling..

No, you're totally right, I just wrote BS previously.
The answer (with voluntary paraphrase) to that question would be バラはそのいい香りがする。

The information I've been given could be wrong, but it's my understanding that you can't answer 何が with <something>は.  It should be <something>が, so that sentence would be incorrect.

何がそのいい香りをしてるの？

Yes, this works, but it's still not an example of the phrase 何がする.  There's stuff added in the middle.

The only case where I can imagine someone actually using the phrase 何がする would be to ask someone to repeat something they said:

A: 出かけようと思うと必ず［ｉｎｄｉｓｔｉｎｃｔ］がする。
B: 何がする？
A: 雷。