nihongo ga wakaranakute, sensei ni shitsumon o shimashita.

direct object particle

Breakdown of nihongo ga wakaranakute, sensei ni shitsumon o shimashita.

• 先せん生せい: teacher
• 日に本ほん語ご: Japanese (language)
• が: subject particle
• に: indirect object particle
• 質問しつもん: question
• 質問しつもん を する: to ask
• 〜なくて: negative connective form
• 分わかる: to understand

Questions & Answers about nihongo ga wakaranakute, sensei ni shitsumon o shimashita.

What does が do in 日本語が分からなくて? Why not use を?

が marks the thing that is understood or not understood with the verb 分かる.

In Japanese, 分かる behaves like to be understandable / to be clear rather than to understand (something). Because of that, the thing that is clear / not clear takes が, not を.

• 日本語が分かる。
  Japanese is understandable. / I understand Japanese.

• 日本語が分からない。
  Japanese is not understandable. / I don’t understand Japanese.

If you said 日本語を分からない, it would sound unnatural or incorrect in standard Japanese. With 分かる, always use が for the thing understood / not understood.

---

Why is it 日本語が and not 日本語は? Could I say 日本語は分からなくて?

Both are possible, but the nuance changes.

• 日本語が分からなくて…
  Focuses on Japanese as the specific thing you do not understand.
  It often answers an implicit question like What is it that you don’t understand? → Japanese (is what) I don’t understand.

• 日本語は分からなくて…
  Uses 日本語 as the topic (what you’re talking about in general).
  It can suggest a contrast, like: As for Japanese, I don’t understand it (but maybe I do understand something else).

In your sentence, 日本語が分からなくて、先生に質問をしました。, が is completely natural and common. は is grammatically fine, but it adds a bit more of a contrastive or topic-like feel: As for Japanese, I didn’t understand it, so I asked the teacher.

---

What grammar form is 分からなくて? How is it related to 分かりません?

分からなくて comes from the negative form of the verb 分かる:

1. Dictionary form: 分かる (to understand / be understandable)
2. Negative plain form: 分からない (don’t understand / not understandable)
3. Adverbial -くて form: 分からなくて

-なくて is the te-form of an adjective-like negative. It is used to:

• connect to another clause
• express reasons or causes
• link actions / states in sequence

Your sentence:

• 日本語が分からなくて、先生に質問をしました。
  Literally: Because Japanese was not understandable, I asked the teacher a question.

Polite forms:

• 分かりません = 分からない in polite form (don’t understand)
• You could also say:
  日本語が分からなくて、先生に質問しました。 (mixing plain negative with polite past)
  or
  日本語が分からなかったので、先生に質問をしました。

So 分からなくて is the negative -て form, linking the reason (not understanding) to the action (asking).

---

Why do we use 分からなくて instead of a full sentence like 日本語が分かりませんでした plus another sentence?

Both structures are possible, but they feel a bit different.

1. Single connected sentence (natural, flowing):

   • 日本語が分からなくて、先生に質問をしました。
     Because I didn’t understand Japanese, I asked the teacher a question.

   Here, 分からなくて (te-form) directly links the first situation to the second. It’s compact and is often used in spoken and written Japanese.

2. Two separate sentences (more “chunked”):

   • 日本語が分かりませんでした。先生に質問をしました。
     I didn’t understand Japanese. I asked the teacher a question.

   This is also correct, but the causal connection is weaker and more up to context. It’s more like listing events one after the other.

The て-form is very commonly used to show a smooth connection or a reason, so 分からなくて here naturally means something like since I didn’t understand / because I didn’t understand.

---

Who is the subject in this sentence? Why isn’t I written?

In Japanese, subjects (and topics) are often omitted when they are obvious from context.

In 日本語が分からなくて、先生に質問をしました。, the implied subject is I:

• (私は) 日本語が分からなくて、先生に質問をしました。
  I didn’t understand Japanese, so I asked the teacher a question.

The 私は part is simply dropped because:

• The speaker is talking about themself, which is the default assumption.
• Repeating 私 all the time sounds unnatural in Japanese.

If the subject were someone else and that mattered, it would usually be mentioned:

• 彼は日本語が分からなくて、先生に質問をしました。
  He didn’t understand Japanese, so he asked the teacher a question.

---

Why do we use に with 先生に? What does に mean here?

に marks the person you direct the action to in this kind of sentence.

In 先生に質問をしました, the pattern is:

• [person] に 質問をする = to ask [person] a question

So:

• 先生に質問をしました。
  I asked the teacher a question.
  (Literally: I did a question to the teacher.)

Here, に can be thought of as to, marking the indirect object / target of the action, similar to English ask a question to the teacher.

You’ll see the same pattern with other verbs:

• 先生に聞きました。 = I asked / listened to the teacher.
• 友だちにメールを送ります。 = I will send an email to my friend.

---

Why is it 質問をしました and not simply 質問しました? Is を necessary?

Both are correct:

• 質問をしました。
• 質問しました。

質問する is a suru-verb formed from the noun 質問 (question) plus する (to do). With this kind of verb:

• You can say 質問をする (with を)
• Or 質問する (without を)

The meaning is the same: to ask a question.

Using を is slightly more explicit that 質問 is the object, but in everyday speech, it’s very common to drop を with する verbs formed from nouns:

• 勉強をする / 勉強する (to study)
• 練習をする / 練習する (to practice)
• 質問をする / 質問する (to ask a question)

In your sentence, 質問をしました is polite and clear, but 質問しました would also be natural.

---

What is the difference between 質問する and 聞く when talking about asking a question?

Both can be used when you ask something, but they focus on slightly different things.

1. 質問する

   • Literally: to do a question
   • Emphasizes the act of asking a question itself.
   • Pattern: [person] に 質問する = ask [person] a question.

   Example:

   • 先生に質問をしました。
     I asked the teacher a question.

2. 聞く

   • Basic meaning: to listen / to hear / to ask
   • When used as to ask, it often emphasizes asking to obtain information.
   • Pattern: [person] に 聞く = ask [person] (about something).

   Example:

   • 分からないことを先生に聞きました。
     I asked the teacher about what I didn’t understand.

In many everyday situations, 先生に聞きました can replace 先生に質問しました and sound very natural.

What you generally do not say is 質問を聞きました to mean I asked a question; that actually means I heard a question. To say ask a question, use:

• 質問する / 質問をする
• or (先生に) 聞く

---

What tense and politeness level is しました? Does it make the whole sentence polite and past?

しました is:

• the polite form (ます-form)
• of する (to do)
• in the past tense (ました)

So 質問をしました = 質問をした in plain form = I asked a question (polite past).

In Japanese, once you use a polite form (like ～ます / ～ました) at the end of a sentence, that sentence is polite.

In 日本語が分からなくて、先生に質問をしました。:

• 分からなくて is plain, but it’s not the final verb; it’s just a connecting form.
• しました is polite past and is the main, sentence-final verb, so the whole sentence is understood as polite past.

It’s very common to mix a plain -て form in the first clause with a polite ました in the second clause like this.

---

Does 質問 here mean one question or can it also mean several questions?

質問 by itself is number-neutral. It can mean:

• a question
• questions
• the act of questioning

Context decides how we interpret it.

In 先生に質問をしました, the most natural English is I asked the teacher a question, but it could also be I asked the teacher some questions, depending on what actually happened.

If you want to be explicit:

• 先生に一つ質問をしました。
  I asked the teacher one question.

• 先生に何個か質問をしました。
  I asked the teacher a few questions.

• 先生にたくさん質問をしました。
  I asked the teacher many questions.

---

Why is it just 先生 and not 先生さん? Don’t we usually add さん to people?

先生 is already an honorific title meaning teacher / professor / doctor (in some contexts). You do not add さん to it.

• Correct: 先生に質問をしました。
• Wrong / childish-sounding: 先生さんに質問をしました。

For people’s names, you often add さん:

• 田中さん (Mr./Ms. Tanaka)
• 山本さん

But with certain titles, you generally do not add さん, because the word itself already has respect built in:

• 先生 (teacher/doctor)
• 先輩 (senior)
• 社長 (company president) – usually: 社長, not 社長さん in polite speech

So 先生に質問をしました is the natural respectful way to say I asked my teacher a question.