*なんて and なんか are both used in conversational Japanese. Also, なんか can be seen as derogatory in some contexts. EDIT: Since this seems to be misleading, なんか can put a bit more emphasis on the derogatory tone of a negative sentence than など, but it is not rude Japanese. As the commenter said, なんて is more colloquial in that sense.
I'd like to add this according to my JLPT study book:
Informal ------------------> Formal
Nなんか ー> Nなんて ー> Nなど
意外な気持ち、否定的な気持ちの強調 Emphasis of an unexpected feeling or a negative feeling.
hana
"Also, なんか can be seen as derogatory in some contexts."
- If one of those two can be 'seen as derogatory,' it is most certainly なんて. I wonder why people who obviously know rather little about the Japanese language think they should be posting grammar entries for others... (I'm not saying my Japanese is better, but I'm not the one making up false entries)
mankind
From "A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar" published by the Japan Times, page 268:
"Nanka is the informal, colloquial version of nado. It is used as nado is used except that in a context conveying undesirability or contempt there is more emphasis on the derogatory meaning."
I didn't mean derogatory as in saying it was rude Japanese. I meant that it can emphasize the derogatory tone in negative sentences. Maybe you should go back to learning your native language rather than trolling.
rubyhatchet
Doesn't "nanka" also mean "rather" or "somewhat"? as in なんか変 (rather weird) and なんかいい車 (a rather nice car)?
pingpongpaddle
なんて...this word always seemed to me to be used by itself to express or emphasize surprise at an action. That seems to be the case in the above examples. But could it be used neutrally?
Cone
Can なんて be grouped in with なんか and など? I was under the impression that なんか and など mean "etc" or "and so on and so forth". i.e. 寿司や天ぷらなどが好きです (I like stuff like sushi, tempura etc etc). And my limited knowledge of なんて was that it is simply a subject or object marker, but it is used when there is a negative connotation towards the thing it's marking. E.g. 車なんていらない = I don't need a bloody car.
bucko
pingpongpaddle: "なんか" seems to mean "somewhat" or "kind of" when used as an adjective/adverb like that.
I don't think なんて is necessarily always negative.
cone
I`m not sure if the examples are in their right place, so I marked everything as suspicious...
karekano
なんか can be a short-hand of なにか in spoken japanese.