Welcome to back to Japanese Phrase of the Month!

This month’s phrase is…

 

「何かと」

Have you been translating it correctly?

Two of the things you learn in first-year Japanese class are that 何か means “something” and that と usually means “and” or “with.” So when people hit 何かと (fancy kanji version: 何彼と), something can go wrong with their interpretation.

It sure looks like it should mean “with something,” doesn’t it? But be wary! Most of the time, it actually means “all sorts of things” or “one thing and another,” like あれこれ or 色々と.

「太郎は最近何かと忙しいみたい。」

It doesn’t mean Taro is busy with something recently; it means…

Sounds like Taro’s pretty busy recently.

Because Taro is busy with various things. With this and that.

Here’s one of the usage examples from Shogakukan Progressive’s entry:

彼は何かと冗談を言って私たちを笑わせた
He made us laugh all the time with some joke (or other).

Of course, it’s perfectly possible to construct a sentence where 何かと does mean “with something.” But next time you see it in the wild, ask yourself which makes more sense in context.

And as you can see in the Shogakukan Progressive example, the set-phrase version of 何かと is often used where we’d put an adverb in English. So that’s a great clue that “with something” probably doesn’t apply.

And that’s a wrap. See you next time!