What are you doing?

[rajs20]

Hi,

In my study of Japanese, I learned some ways to say "what are you doing?":

nani o shite iru n desu ka?
nani o shite n da?

But in anime, sometimes when they say this, it sounds different,... like:

nani aten da?
nani o ateru no?

or something like that... Could someone please tell me what verb they're using here? (I wrote ateru, but I don't think I heard it correctly).

Thanks!
Raj

 

[wakarimasen]

I'd hazard a guess that the verb they're using is やる (yaru), another verb which means "to do." So, なにをやってるの (pretty informal) would be "What are you doing?"

Here is a cool article about the difference between する and やる.

HTH,
Justin

 

[deadhippo]

yeah its probably

何やてんだ。
何をやてるの
sometimes
何をやてるんだ

 

[Kansai]

Hello! I think in anime they say

nani yatte n da?
nani (o) yatteru no?

The verb 'yaru' is used here. It means the same as 'suru', i.e. 'to do' (not 'to give' here, as you know, 'yaru' means also 'to give' like 'ageru') and is more colloquial. Both are short forms of "nani o yatteiru no (da)?" I can think of several other ways of saying the same thing as this sentence.

nani o yatteiru n da? nani o yatteiru no?
nani yatteiru n da? nani yatteiru no?
nani o yatteru no da? nani o yatteru no?
nani o yatteru n da?
nani yatteru n da? nani yatteru no?
nani yatteru n? nani yatte n no?

There are more ..... With different dialects you will find still more variations.

 

[rajs20]

Ahhh!! Okay thanks very much I knew yaru/yatte, but when I heard it, I didn't make out the "y" sound since "nani-a" sounds a lot like "nani-ya". So I stupidly thought it was some verb starting with "a".