93731
どうして is translated as why? but... it has して which, is the continuous form. I'm
guessing it's continuous to allow the other person to continue the sentence.
But, then it has どう.. which I translate to in what way..... And then I can't
understand it. So I translate it like どうする, in what way done? Is it like...
what happened for you to do this? I don't understand it well.
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2022-03-14T15:48:15.173
93713
2022-03-16T11:06:18.873
50287
question
grammar meaning translation usage
I don't understand どうして
The so-called “continuous” form, or て-form, of a verb doesn’t by itself mean
something is continuing. It is just one of its many functions.

> 今仕事をし **て** います。  
>  I am working now.

It can also express reason or cause.

> 仕事があっ **て** 、パーティーに行けませんでした。  
>  I couldn’t go to the party because I had work to do.

Someone who didn’t know that might ask you a question like this.

> **どうして** パーティーに行かなかったんですか。  
>  Why didn’t you go to the party?

I wouldn’t recommend splitting どうして into どう and して because どうして can also be
used by itself or followed only by ですか, something that would sound odd with a
normal て-form. However, it would not be totally wrong to say that a verbal
phrase consisting of the question word どう and the generic verb する is put into
the same て-form where the speaker expects the response to explain the reason.
If we had to translate this question in a similar way to the statement above,
it would be something like this.

> _lit._ You didn’t come to the party because what happened?

どうして in this sentence can be understood as asking how things unfolded for the
person in question. There might be some parallelism to the English expression
“how come” (or not). In other contexts, どうする can mean, more literally, how to
deal with something.

> Q: **どうすれば** いいですか。  
>  What should I do?  
>  ( _lit._ If I do it how, it will be good?)
>
> A: 仕事をやめればいいです。  
>  You should quit your job.

Here, too, どうする is put in the same form as the part of the response that
answers it, namely the conditional form.

By the way, the て-form can also express means.

> 電車に乗っ **て** パーティーに行きました。  
>  I went to the party by (taking the) train.

While it may not be incorrect to ask a means with どうして, it is usually avoided
and どうやって is used, instead.

> **どうやって** パーティーに行ったんですか。  
>  How did you go to the party?

If the reason or means is expressed with a noun, it is marked with で. This is
like the noun version of the て-form.

> 仕事 **で** パーティーに行けませんでした。  
>  I couldn’t go to the party because of work.

> 電車 **で** パーティーに行きました。  
>  I went to the party by train.

A genuine problem arises here because なんで can be used to ask both a reason and
a means, although the latter is usually written as 何で and is not usually used
in a negative question.

> **なんで** パーティーに行ったんですか。  
>  Why did you go to the party?  
>  How (by what means) did you go to the party?

One way to avoid this confusion is to read 何で as なにで when it is meant for a
means.
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2022-03-16T09:48:45.293
93731
2022-03-16T11:06:18.873
2022-03-16T11:06:18.873
43676
43676
93713
answer