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Matt Shaver
"What do you want to do?"
I have a question. If a friend is coming over and we want to decide what we are going to do that day, how would I ask them "What do you want to do?"?
I thought maybe "Was willst du heute machen?". I know "Was machst du heute?" would mean "what are you doing today?" so I thought it made sense to add wollen. Google translate gave me the following phrase "Was möchten Sie tun?" which I believe is the same as "Was machst du tun?" but now I am completely confused which phrase I would use.
Danke!
Jan 3, 2016 9:38 PM
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Answers · 3
Was willst du heute machen?
Was möchtest du heute machen?
Was willst/möchtest du heute tun?
The first two are both fine, just the second being slightly more polite (möchtest - would like to, willst - want). The third one is not used. Both ',machen' and 'tun' mean to do, but they are not used in the same way. 'machen' is generally more used, like in common sentences like to do something. 'tun' is more used in special expressions like , es tut mir leid' (I am sorry), 'es tut weh' (it hurts, it is sore)etc.
(Google translate still doesn't work very well on sentences. Basically, longer the sentence is more likely it is to get it wrong)
January 3, 2016
"Sie möchten" means like "you would like"; "du machst" means "you do" - different roots.
January 3, 2016
