Small easy question :)

[irishwars]

I am learning japanese right now. 4 months into it. I use this website and go to school at night (once a week). I am trying to speak japanese around the house so my imoto can learn to. When I ask her whats the matter, is there a casual way to say it?
I use "dou shimashitaka" but I think that is more formal then what I should use with my sister

Also I have been watching ALOT of japanese tv. How many things can Dou mean? I hear it all the time, everywhere

[wccrawford]

How about 'dou desu ka' ?

Note: I don't speak Japanese well, I just watch a LOT of anime.

Edit: It occurs to me they usually say 'o genki desu ka', actually. 'Are you well?'

[QuackingShoe]

An informal is dou shita? or dou shita no?
shimashita = past formal form of suru. Past informal is shita.
Dou means what/how/why, so yeah, it's used all the time, just like question words in any language. It is of course also just a sound, though, and is used in a variety of other words. As a random example, doubutsu means 'animal'.

Might also want to know about nani shite (i)ru no? or nani shite n no? if you're looking for those kinds of phrases. It's "What are you doing?"
shite iru is basically the progressive form of suru, but the 'i' is optional and sometimes the whole 'iru' is replaced by 'n' in colloquial speech.

dou shite means 'why'.

Edit to reply: Dou desu ka? is a formal question asking how something is, essentially in the same way that question is used in English. So if someone is reading something or eating something you can ask how it is. You can also use it for pitching ideas. Like, how about tea? Informal is just dou. So like, ocha wa dou?
In contrast, dou shitara ii? is asking for an opinion on what would be good to do (instead of suggesting something),　even to the point of "What should I do?" but the grammar there is probably a bit beyond here.

[irishwars]

wow thanks QuackingShoe, one more quick question if you dont mind. Dou is a sound I hear all the time like I said before, also the word/sound Sou is also used everywhere.

2 examples I saw on tv
question:
"so you are going to help me?
answer
sou (3 people saying it at once)

question:
"i dont really need this anymore, ok?
answer
sou ka

sou is a word for agreement or and understanding?

[QuackingShoe]

It's frequently used that way, yeah. It's a branch of 'sore'. Do you know most of that by now? kore, sore, are, dore? And then they all have these forms: sore, sono, soko, sochira, socchi, sonna, etc. 'sou' is one of these as well. (the other's forms, as it happens, are kou, aa (not really used?), and the infamous dou, actually). It means something like 'that way,' while 'kou' means 'this way' and 'dou' means 'what way/how'.

So while it is basically used to just mean "Yeah," you're actually saying something like "It's that way." And when you ask "sou desu ka?" you're asking "Oh it's that way?" It's very much like asking "Is that so?"

Anyway, this means it's also used in a variety of other ways aside from a simple "Sou desu ne" and "sou desu ka." Very common example is 'sou iu no/koto wa' which is like "The thing said like that is..." which is used to further define things in Japanese.

See it a lot when people are giving instructions.
"Dou?" Like how?
"Kou." Like this.
"Kou?" Like this?
"Sou sou." Like that, like that.

[jaypunkrawk]

どうしたん？