Marathi Question Words: कोण, काय, कुठे, केव्हा, का

You've learned your greetings. You know a few nouns. Now someone says something you don't fully catch, and you need to ask a follow-up. That's the moment Marathi question words become essential — not someday, but on your third day of conversation practice.

Marathi has seven core question words. They're short, memorable, and once you know where to place them in a sentence, you can construct dozens of genuine questions immediately.

The Seven Question Words

Here's the complete set before we dig into each one:

Marathi	Romanization	Meaning
कोण	koṇ	who
काय	kāy	what
कुठे	kuṭhe	where
केव्हा	kevhā	when
का	kā	why
कसे	kase	how
किती	kitī	how much / how many

One observation before the details: these question words are not tonal the way Mandarin words are, but vowel length matters. The ā in कुठे (kuṭhe) and the ā in काय (kāy) are long vowels — held slightly longer than the short a in English "cat." The Marathi pronunciation guide covers the full vowel system if you want to anchor this properly before moving on.

कोण (koṇ) — Who

कोण asks about a person. The ण at the end is retroflex — tongue tip curls back, unlike the dental न you use in words like नाही. The distinction matters: native Marathi speakers hear the difference immediately.

Examples:

• कोण आहे? (Koṇ āhe?) — "Who is it?"
• तो कोण आहे? (To koṇ āhe?) — "Who is he?"
• हे पत्र कोणाने लिहिले? (He patr koṇāne lihile?) — "Who wrote this letter?"

Notice that last example uses कोणाने rather than कोण — the postposition -ने marks the doer of a transitive past-tense verb (the ergative construction). कोण inflects just like nouns do when postpositions attach. You'll encounter कोणाला (koṇālā, to whom), कोणाचा (koṇācā, whose), and कोणासाठी (koṇāsāṭhī, for whom) as you build more complex sentences.

काय (kāy) — What

काय is one of the most-used words in everyday Marathi. It asks about things, situations, and information. In quick Mumbai speech, काय often softens into something closer to kāy re when used casually with a friend.

Examples:

• काय झाले? (Kāy jhāle?) — "What happened?"
• तुझे नाव काय आहे? (Tujhe nāv kāy āhe?) — "What is your name?"
• हे काय आहे? (He kāy āhe?) — "What is this?"

कुठे (kuṭhe) — Where

कुठे asks about place or location. The retroflex ट in the middle is important — kuthe without the retroflex sounds like a different word. When asking about direction (where to), Marathi sometimes uses कुठे with the postposition -ला: कुठे जातोस? vs. कुठे आहेस? — "Where are you going?" vs. "Where are you?"

Examples:

• तू कुठे राहतोस? (Tū kuṭhe rāhatos?) — "Where do you live?" (to a male friend)
• हॉस्पिटल कुठे आहे? (Hōspiṭal kuṭhe āhe?) — "Where is the hospital?"
• बाथरूम कुठे आहे? (Bāthrūm kuṭhe āhe?) — "Where is the bathroom?" (perfectly natural to ask this way)

केव्हा (kevhā) — When

केव्हा asks about time. The vh in the romanization represents the Marathi व sound, which is softer than English "v" and closer to "w" in some dialects. In Pune Marathi, you'll sometimes hear kēvhā with a slightly longer first vowel; in Mumbai, it often gets clipped to something closer to kevā in fast speech.

Examples:

• तुझी ट्रेन केव्हा आहे? (Tujhī ṭren kevhā āhe?) — "When is your train?"
• केव्हा भेटशील? (Kevhā bheṭaśīl?) — "When will we meet?"
• तू केव्हा आलास? (Tū kevhā ālās?) — "When did you arrive?" (to a male, informal)

का (kā) — Why

Short, punchy, and impossible to confuse. का also happens to be the particle that optionally ends yes/no questions, which we'll cover in its own section below. Context distinguishes the two uses cleanly.

Examples:

• तू का आलास? (Tū kā ālās?) — "Why did you come?"
• हे का केलेस? (He kā keles?) — "Why did you do this?"
• तू का रडतोयस? (Tū kā raḍatoys?) — "Why are you crying?" (colloquial present continuous)

कसे (kase) — How

कसे is the neuter form of the "how" question word, and it's the standard default when asking about manner, condition, or process. But Marathi's three-gender system affects this word — when you're asking about a person's condition and want to agree with their gender, you'll hear कसा (kasā, masculine), कशी (kaśī, feminine), or कसे (kase, neuter/polite plural). The classic greeting कसे आहात? (kase āhāt?) uses kase because it's addressed to someone with तुम्ही-level formality — neuter/polite agreement. For a quick explanation of why three genders change so much in Marathi, the three-genders post lays out the full pattern.

Examples:

• तुम्ही कसे आहात? (Tumhī kase āhāt?) — "How are you?" (polite)
• तू कसा आहेस? (Tū kasā āhes?) — "How are you?" (to a male friend)
• हे कसे करायचे? (He kase karāyace?) — "How do you do this?"

किती (kitī) — How Much / How Many

किती works for both countable and uncountable quantities. Unlike English, Marathi doesn't have a separate "how many" vs. "how much" — किती handles both.

Examples:

• हे किती आहे? (He kitī āhe?) — "How much is this?" (price)
• किती वाजले? (Kitī vājale?) — "What time is it?" (literally: how many struck?)
• तुला किती भाषा येतात? (Tulā kitī bhāṣā yetāt?) — "How many languages do you know?"

Where Question Words Go in the Sentence

Marathi is a verb-final language — the verb almost always comes last. Question words typically sit right before the verb, or before the phrase they're asking about. This differs from English, where question words move to the front of the sentence.

The standard word order in a Marathi statement:

Subject → Object/Complement → Verb

In a question, the question word replaces (or precedes) the element being asked about, and the rest of the sentence order stays the same:

Statement	Question
तो पुण्याला जातो. (He goes to Pune.)	तो कुठे जातो? (Where does he go?)
ती चहा पिते. (She drinks tea.)	ती काय पिते? (What does she drink?)
ट्रेन आठ वाजता येते. (The train comes at eight.)	ट्रेन केव्हा येते? (When does the train come?)

The question word doesn't change the verb form. No inversion, no auxiliary verb insertion, no do-support (like English "does she...?"). The word order stays largely intact, and the question word slots in where the answer would naturally appear.

One subtlety: का (why) can sit right after the subject or right before the verb, and both positions are natural — तू का गेलास? and तू गेलास का? are both possible, though the second version starts to sound like a yes/no question with rising intonation rather than a why-question. Placement matters more with का than with the others.

Yes/No Questions

Marathi yes/no questions work differently from wh-questions. The standard mechanism is rising intonation on a statement. No word changes, nothing moves — you just raise your pitch at the end.

तो येतो. (To yeto.) — "He comes." (statement, falling intonation) तो येतो? (To yeto?) — "Does he come?" / "Is he coming?" (same words, rising intonation)

Optionally, you can add का at the end of the sentence to explicitly mark it as a question. This is common in formal speech, in writing, or when you want to be very clear:

तो येतो का? (To yeto kā?) — "Is he coming?" (with का as question marker) तू मराठी बोलतोस का? (Tū marāṭhī bolatōs kā?) — "Do you speak Marathi?"

This का is different from the why-का by position: the question-marker का comes at the end of a yes/no sentence, the why-का comes after the subject or before the verb. Marathi speakers distinguish them effortlessly from context and sentence position.

20 Question-and-Answer Pairs

These are real conversational exchanges organized into three situations: travel, daily life, and meeting people. Each follows correct grammar — including the gender agreement you'd use in the most common neutral contexts.

Travel

1. Q: पुणे स्टेशन कुठे आहे? (Puṇe Sṭeśan kuṭhe āhe?) "Where is Pune Station?" A: सरळ जा, उजव्या हाताला आहे. (Saraḷ jā, ujvyā hātālā āhe.) "Go straight, it's on the right."

2. Q: बस केव्हा येते? (Bas kevhā yete?) "When does the bus come?" A: दहा मिनिटांत येते. (Dahā miniṭānt yete.) "It comes in ten minutes."

3. Q: तिकीट किती आहे? (Tikīṭ kitī āhe?) "How much is the ticket?" A: पन्नास रुपये आहे. (Pannās rupaye āhe.) "It's fifty rupees."

4. Q: हे विमानतळ कुठे आहे? (He vimāntaḷ kuṭhe āhe?) "Where is the airport?" A: शहराच्या बाहेर आहे. (Śahrācyā bāher āhe.) "It's outside the city."

5. Q: पुढची गाडी केव्हा आहे? (Puḍhacī gāḍī kevhā āhe?) "When is the next train/vehicle?" A: संध्याकाळी सहा वाजता. (Sandhyākāḷī sahā vājtā.) "At six in the evening."

6. Q: रिक्षा कुठे मिळते? (Rikṣā kuṭhe miḷate?) "Where can I get an auto-rickshaw?" A: मुख्य रस्त्यावर मिळते. (Mukhya rastyāvar miḷate.) "You'll find one on the main road."

7. Q: हे कसे जायचे? (He kase jāyace?) "How do I get there?" A: मेट्रोने जा. (Meṭrone jā.) "Go by metro."

Daily Life

8. Q: हे किती वाजलेत? (He kitī vājalet?) "What time is it?" (casual) A: साडेतीन वाजलेत. (Sāḍetīn vājalet.) "It's three thirty."

9. Q: आज काय खाणार? (Āj kāy khāṇār?) "What will you eat today?" A: वरण-भात खाणार. (Varaṇ-bhāt khāṇār.) "I'll have dal-rice."

10. Q: बाजार कुठे आहे? (Bājār kuṭhe āhe?) "Where is the market?" A: दोन मिनिटांवर आहे. (Don miniṭānvar āhe.) "It's two minutes away."

11. Q: हे दुकान केव्हा उघडते? (He dukān kevhā ughaḍate?) "When does this shop open?" A: सकाळी नऊ वाजता. (Sakāḷī naū vājtā.) "At nine in the morning."

12. Q: तुम्ही कसे आहात? (Tumhī kase āhāt?) "How are you?" (polite) A: मी ठीक आहे, धन्यवाद. (Mī ṭhīk āhe, dhanyavād.) "I'm fine, thank you."

13. Q: आईसाठी काय आणू? (Āīsāṭhī kāy āṇū?) "What should I bring for mother?" A: फळे आण. (Phaḷe āṇ.) "Bring fruit."

14. Q: पाऊस का पडतोय? (Pāūs kā paḍatoy?) "Why is it raining?" (rhetorical/playful) A: हे पावसाळ्याचे दिवस आहेत! (He pāvasāḷyāce diʋas āhet!) "These are monsoon days!"

Meeting People

15. Q: तुमचे नाव काय आहे? (Tumace nāv kāy āhe?) "What is your name?" (polite) A: माझे नाव अर्जुन आहे. (Mājhe nāv Arjun āhe.) "My name is Arjun."

16. Q: तुम्ही कुठून आलात? (Tumhī kuṭhūn ālāt?) "Where are you from?" (polite) A: मी नाशिकहून आलो. (Mī Nāśikhūn ālo.) "I've come from Nashik."

17. Q: तुम्ही काय काम करता? (Tumhī kāy kām kartā?) "What work do you do?" (polite) A: मी शिक्षक आहे. (Mī śikṣak āhe.) "I am a teacher."

18. Q: तुम्ही इथे कसे आलात? (Tumhī ithe kase ālāt?) "How did you come here?" (polite) A: गाडीने आलो. (Gāḍīne ālo.) "I came by car."

19. Q: तुम्हाला मराठी कुठे शिकलात? (Tumhālā Marāṭhī kuṭhe śikhlāt?) "Where did you learn Marathi?" (polite) A: मी अॅपवर शिकलो. (Mī app-var śiklo.) "I learned it on an app."

20. Q: तुमचा फोन नंबर काय आहे? (Tumacā phon nambar kāy āhe?) "What is your phone number?" (polite) A: माझा नंबर नंतर देतो. (Mājhā nambar nantar deto.) "I'll give you my number later."

Putting It Together: A Quick Reference

The fastest way to internalize these is to attach each question word to one anchor sentence and vary only that word. Start with the frame ___ आहे? (\\ āhe?, "What/where/who is?") and swap in काय, कुठे, and कोण. Then try ___ करतोस? (\\ karatos?, "What/how/why do you do?") with काय, कसे, and का.

For the full pronoun forms that slot into these questions — so you can ask the same question at different formality levels — the Marathi pronouns guide covers तू, तुम्ही, and आपण with their verb agreement patterns in detail.

Questions come alive when you also understand negation — the answers to questions often include नाही, नाहीस, or नाहीत depending on who's speaking. The Marathi negation guide has the full inflection table for नाही and explains why नको is the right word when you're declining an offer rather than denying a fact.

The Learn Marathi app by Brightwood Apps includes a dedicated questions module with native speaker audio for all seven question words, covering the pronunciation of retroflex sounds like the ण in कोण and the ट in कुठे — the kinds of distinctions that separate natural-sounding Marathi from textbook Marathi. Available on the App Store.