Now that you mention it I do believe I put です as well, but without a question word as you've said it looks cavemanish.

Thank you.

pm215 wrote:

That's like saying "program name?". If the people you're talking to are sufficiently motivated to try to communicate (eg they are your friends or are trying to sell you something :-)) that level of pigeon will get the idea across, but otherwise it's not too surprising if it gets ignored.

http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar/question is probably a good place to start. Things you're missing: (1) a 'question word' (2) polite form (not obligatory but probably not a bad idea).

Considering that you can say things like この番組の名前は？ I would be caution against trying to find analogs between Japanese and English... like ever.

jajaaan wrote:

pm215 wrote:

That's like saying "program name?".

Considering that you can say things like この番組の名前は？ I would be caution against trying to find analogs between Japanese and English... like ever.

Er, この番組の名前は？ has grammar, it has particle use, it's not just banging the nouns together. I don't think there's any problem with trying to convey the point "this Japanese sounds pretty incoherent" by analogy to some incoherent English (or are you claiming that the original questioner's Japanese was a reasonable way of saying what he wanted to say?)

The whole point of translation is exactly about finding analogs between two different languages. I've occasionally commented about over-literal translation in other postings, and I agree it's a trap to be wary of, but I don't think I've fallen into it here...

ocircle wrote:

If you want to ask what a show is called, I'd go with この番組の名前はなんですか?

Am I wrong, then, about 名前 only being used for given names? One of the perils of self-study is that you don't get corrected nearly enough.

Yes -- 名前 can be used for book and show titles (and other things), not just people's names.

EDIT: However, there's absolutely nothing wrong with この番組はなんと言いますか。

Last edited by yudantaiteki (2010 January 27, 3:31 pm)

If it's in an informal conversation with close friends, これ何て番組？ (これなんてばんぐみ？) would be the simplest and natural way. If you want to add a nuance that you should have known the name or forgot it as in "What's this called again?," it's これ何て番組だっけ？ You'll see people say this on 2ch etc. where you're supposed to speak informally.

これは何という番組ですか。(これはなんというばんぐみですか) is a politer version. You can even say this to a stranger in a formal situation.

As ocircle says, この番組の名前はなんですか? is ok too. But probably it's less common. この番組は何ですか? is another good way, but you might get a different kind of answer like "It's a Japanese drama."

この番組は何と呼びますか? and この番組はなんと言いますか。make sense, but I wouldn't say them as often as other natural sentences that are asking pretty much the same thing.

この番組の名前は？ sounds like you have the right to know the name or the person who is asked should know it. A TV host might use this when he asks the audience of his own show that. A quiz show might use this when asking participants what the name of the program shown in the monitor right now is. Your teacher might use this when you wrote a report about a TV show but forgot to include its name.

Last edited by magamo (2010 January 28, 12:46 am)