ものか details
write + as if!
kaku mono ka
as if!; there's no way — a refusal or denial thrown as a rhetorical question
あんな店、二度と行くもんか。
anna mise, nido to iku mon ka.
I'm never setting foot in that place again. casual
平気なものか、あんなに叱られたんだから。
heiki na mono ka, anna ni shikarareta n da kara.
Of course he isn't fine — he got chewed out like that. casual
- dictionary form
- i-adjective
- na-adjective
- contraction
- polite
Examples
I refuse; never again — a vow about the speaker's own conduct, said with heat
あんな店、二度と行くもんか。
anna mise, nido to iku mon ka.
I'm never setting foot in that place again. casual
こんなところで負けるものか。
konna tokoro de makeru mono ka.
There's no way I'm losing here. casual
as if that were true — throws back someone else's claim as impossible
平気なものか、あんなに叱られたんだから。
heiki na mono ka, anna ni shikarareta n da kara.
Of course he isn't fine — he got chewed out like that. casual
そんな都合のいい話があるものですか。
sonna tsugou no ii hanashi ga aru mono desu ka.
As if there were ever such a convenient offer. neutral
Formation
{V}ものかattaches to dictionary form{I}ものかattaches to i-adjective{NA-stem}なものかattaches to na-adjective
Variant notes
- もんか — the ordinary spoken shape — 誰が行くもんか. ものか itself already reads as spoken; もんか is blunter still.
Notes
sentence is written with 。 as often as with ？. ものですか is the polite
shape and reads as dated or markedly feminine.
Related patterns
Similar
わけがない is an inference about the world and takes any subject the speaker has no stake in (明日雨が降るわけがない); ものか is an emotional refusal or rebuttal, which is why it carries a first-person vow about the speaker's own future conduct — 二度と行くものか works, ×二度と行くわけがない does not.
Lookalikes
The same もの, one か apart, and the か reverses the truth value — ものだ asserts a general truth as shared knowledge (負けるものだ would concede that losing is how it goes), while ものか denies flat out (負けるものか refuses to lose); nothing but the final kana marks the difference.
ものの is subordinate — it leaves its clause hanging and the sentence's verdict lands after it; ものか completes the predication outright, and anything following is an afterthought tacked on behind the verdict (平気なものか、あんなに叱られたんだから), never the clause the sentence was still waiting for.
Both sit sentence-finally on the same もの／もん, and the か flips the speaker's stance — bare もん offers a petulant reason for what was done (知らなかったもん), while もんか rejects the proposition outright (知るもんか); one explains, the other refuses.
Same もの root, opposite stance — ものか denies a proposition outright with heat (二度と行くものか), while ものがある quietly affirms that a quality is present; hearing the emphatic denial of ものか inside ものがある reverses the sentence's point.