どう

Japanese

Adverb

どう (kanji 如何, romaji dō)

1. in what manner?

See also

Japanese demonstratives

	ko- “this” (close to speaker)	so- “that” (close to listener)	a- “that over there” (far from both)	do- “which” (indeterminate, question)
Object	これ	それ	あれ	どれ
	これら	それら	あれら	—
Determiner	この	その	あの	どの
	これらの	それらの	あれらの	—
Kind	こんな	そんな	あんな	どんな
Place	ここ	そこ	あそこ*	どこ
Direction	こちら	そちら	あちら	どちら
	こっち	そっち	あっち	どっち
Human	こいつ	そいつ	あいつ	どいつ
Manner	こう	そう	ああ**	どう
* irregular ** regular (long vowel)

Usage notes

• The hiragana spelling (どう) is preferred to the kanji spelling (如何), which is rarely used.

Synonyms

• いかが

Derived terms

• どうか
• どうも
• どういう

Interjection

どう (romaji dō)

1. Casual greeting: Howdy? What's new? What's up?

   どう? まあまあ

   Howdy? So-so.

2. Casual question: It works? Is it OK?

   どう? いいんじゃない

   It works? Seems OK.

3. Call out to horses or cows to control/stop them: ho! hoy!

Noun

どう (romaji dō)

1. 胴: the large intestine; the body
2. 銅: copper, brass, bronze cuprum
3. 堂: hall; government office
4. 動: move, happen; movement, action
5. 僮: page, boy servant
6. 働: labor; work

Prefix

どう (romaji dō-)

1. 同: same, similar; together with

Suffix

どう (romaji -dō)

1. 堂: hall, temple, shrine