どういうことか (dou iu koto ka) Meaning Japanese Grammar - What Does It Mean?

The expression どういうことか (dou iu koto ka) means What do you mean by that?, What does it mean?.

It is used to ask for clarification and elucidation of what is being said and also to express astonishment, surprise or disappointment depending on the situation.

In this post we learn more about the meaning of どういうことか, how it is formed and when どういうことか is used through real example sentences.

How to form どういうことか

This expression is formed

• by the interrogative どう dō how?, what? of the Kosoado series, the Japanese demonstratives
• by the verb to say 言(い)う
• by the noun こと meaning thing, event, matter; its kanji is 事(こと)
• by the interrogative particle か

We can also find the forms:

• どういうことですか polite form with the copula expressed: です.
• どういうことなのか informal and colloquial

どういうこと?

⇨ what do you mean?

⇨ what does it mean?

Today I am giving as examples various titles of Japanese publications on different topics and all containing the expression どういうことか that we are developing in this post.

とは to express astonishment

These two particles combined create a very common form in Japanese and one use is in explanations and descriptions of something.

とは follows the noun or expression whose description is asked or reported

The structure as follows:

We can find phrases that end simply with とは; these are situations of surprise, amazement, when something is not expected to happen.

The sentence is completed according to the situation:

• I was surprised to see a 4-year-old writing kanji
• I didn't think a 4-year-old could write kanji.

とは is often replaced by the less formal って

とは is ised in combination with どういうことか

どういうことか to ask for clarification

This expression is used when we don't quite understand what our interlocutor is saying and ask for further information and explanation.

A Japanese definition of the form どういうことか: 物事の起こった原因が分からない際の表現

We don't know the causes and the reasons for the fact reported and ask the interlocutor for an explanation.

どういうことか to express surprise

どういうことか is also used in situations where one expresses surprise at what is being said.

Astonishment and also dismay in the following dialogue:

Other Japanese book titles:

Synonyms of どういうことか

Some commonly used synonymous forms of どういうことか are:

• どういう訳(わけ)か
• どういう理(り)由(ゆう)か

⇨ what's the reason?

The generic noun こと thing, matter is replaced by 訳(わけ) wake and 理(り)由(ゆう) riyū meaning reason, motive, cause

Examples with どういうことか

って as we have seen substitutes とは.

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