answering the 'dou iu imi desu ka' question... DOU or TO?
In this audio lessons i have, they say 'what does that mean?' is said:

'sore wa dou iu imi desu ka'

i can understand that well... but then the answer is like:

'FOUR DAYS to iu imi desu'

using 'to iu' instead of 'dou iu'.
I'm kinda confused... is it 'TO' or 'DOU?'
Thanks in advance!

Question

answering the 'dou iu imi desu ka' question... DOU or TO?
In this audio lessons i have, they say 'what does that mean?' is said:

'sore wa dou iu imi desu ka'

i can understand that well... but then the answer is like:

'FOUR DAYS to iu imi desu'

using 'to iu' instead of 'dou iu'.
I'm kinda confused... is it 'TO' or 'DOU?'
Thanks in advance!

Answer

Hi.

DOU literally means "how", (or in your context, "what" as in "what does it mean"). But as in English, in Japanese we don't normally say "that's what it means" but rather, "it means". So it is not necessary to say DOU. So TO is used instead of DOU. Ok, technically, English, one can say "FOUR DAYS is what it means" but in Japanese, we never say something similar like FOUR DAYS DOU IU IMI DESU. In other words, DOU is used only in questions, not in answers or statements.

Cheers,

- Yan