How to say "What is he wearing?" in Japanese?

[AngelicaFay]

I *think* it would be something along the lines of 彼は何を____いますか。but I am confused because it is my understanding that 着て applies to things put on the body, はいて to the legs and かぶって for the head, right? (Please tell me if i'm wrong!) so what word would be appropriate to ask "what is he wearing?" in general? Thanks in advance ^.^

[KyleGoetz]

Originally Posted by AngelicaFay

I *think* it would be something along the lines of 彼は何を____いますか。but I am confused because it is my understanding that 着て applies to things put on the body, はいて to the legs and かぶって for the head, right? (Please tell me if i'm wrong!) so what word would be appropriate to ask "what is he wearing?" in general? Thanks in advance ^.^

Use 着る for general "wearing"

[Columbine]

Originally Posted by AngelicaFay

I *think* it would be something along the lines of 彼は何を____いますか。but I am confused because it is my understanding that 着て applies to things put on the body, はいて to the legs and かぶって for the head, right? (Please tell me if i'm wrong!) so what word would be appropriate to ask "what is he wearing?" in general? Thanks in advance ^.^

If you're talking about clothing in general you can use 着ます。if it's specifically glasses, perfume, trousers, jewellry, shoes etc, then you use the relevant verb. Don't forget though, it should be 〜ている, because the wearing is a present continuous action.

[Sashimister]

Originally Posted by AngelicaFay

I *think* it would be something along the lines of 彼は何を____いますか。but I am confused because it is my understanding that 着て applies to things put on the body, はいて to the legs and かぶって for the head, right? (Please tell me if i'm wrong!) so what word would be appropriate to ask "what is he wearing?" in general? Thanks in advance ^.^

First and foremost, Japanese speakers don't use pronouns like you do. 彼 is a big no-no.

We don't use 着る when we want to know what shoes someone is wearing and whether or not s/he is also wearing a hat as well as what clothes s/he is wearing. In fact, we don't even use that 彼は何を____いますか format because it's impossible for all the verbs that you mentioned.

Native speakers would say 「（その人は）どんな格好（かっこう）をしていますか 。」.

If you say 何を着ていますか, the reply will only include the person's top and bottom.

[steven]

I have to say though... if this is said as more of a statement than a question, ie: What's that guy wearing?! (as in he looks goofy), then I don't believe どんな格好している would be appropriate (maybe you could say something like　何格好しているのかい）or something like that? In that kind of situation I've heard things like その人何着とんけ？ which means in standard Japanese, I would guess something like その人って何着ているのかい？！ or something like that. Of course this would all be said in a joking manner between friends or when making fun of someone on TV who is purposely dressed funny as this kind of language would be innapropriate to use with people who you don't know too well.

I know it's technically not correct to say 着る for things other than shirts/jackets/sweaters etc., but I've seen Japanese people do it quite frequently. This is probably like 5% of the time (which is a guess), but it's still noticable to me. Maybe it's just my wife though... sometimes I think she makes mistakes in Japanese as much as I do haha.

[KyleGoetz]

Originally Posted by Sashimister

First and foremost, Japanese speakers don't use pronouns like you do. 彼 is a big no-no.

We don't use 着る when we want to know what shoes someone is wearing and whether or not s/he is also wearing a hat as well as what clothes s/he is wearing. In fact, we don't even use that 彼は何を____いますか format because it's impossible for all the verbs that you mentioned.

Native speakers would say 「（その人は）どんな格好（かっこう）をしていますか 。」.

If you say 何を着ていますか, the reply will only include the person's top and bottom.

Thanks for the tip, SM