何なに

Similar

• 何なにも〜ない

  Both range 何なに over every possible thing, and the split is polarity, not scope — 何なにがありますか asks the question this page's bare 何なに fills, while 何なにも〜ない is the fixed idiom that answers it in the negative, so "there's nothing here" reaches for that page, not for 何なに plus an ordinary negative verb.

Lookalikes

• なんか

  The colloquial なんか that knocks a noun down a peg (学生がくせいなんか) is など worn down for speech, not this page's 何なにか — same three syllables, different words, and only the sentence around them says which one is standing there.

• なんて

  何なんてきれいな景色けしきだろう exclaims directly on 何なん＋て, one word at a time; the pattern at なんて instead quotes and judges a WHOLE clause (別わかれるなんて、信しんじられない), so the syllables repeat but the grammar does not.

Combines with

• なんとか

  なんとか welds 何なん to とか into one lexicalized adverb, "somehow, by whatever means" — なんとか間まに合あった no longer asks a question at all, unlike the transparent 何なにか this page covers.

what — the bare question word, taking a case particle exactly like any other noun

how many, what number — 何なに fuses with a counter as なん, asking the count

what — 何なん identifying a thing (plain だ, polite です) or asking what kind of thing (attributive の)

something; anything — 何なにか marks a single unspecified thing

nothing — 何なにも under a negative denies every candidate at once (the full pattern lives at 何なにも〜ない)

anything at all — 何なんでも covers every option without exception

nothing at all — 何なんにも, the emphatic spoken form of 何なにも under a negative