なんか (nanka)

What it means

1. 1.

   Like; sort of; somehow. A hedge and a pause-filler, dropped in wherever an English speaker would say 'like' or 'I dunno, kind of'.

2. 2.

   Literally 'something like', and still used that way in careful speech — the filler use is the same word bleached of content.

Examples with translations

• なんか、よくわかんないけど、いい感じ。

  It's, like, hard to explain, but it feels right.

• なんか変じゃない？

  Doesn't that seem a bit off?

Where it comes from

A contraction of 何か (nani ka), 'something'. The hedging use is as heavily criticised by Japanese language commentators as 'like' is by English ones, and is equally unstoppable.

Other forms

Romanised as:

nanka