I was reading some manga and found this sentence: 何をしようというんだ. I tried to search any translation on internet and It simply was translated as “what are you scheming?”. It’s correct that translation? I cannot find any explanation about the grammar point ようというんだ. Anyone can help me explaining it? Or where I’m wrong with my assumptions. Thank you very much!
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It would be nice to know the context: who is saying that to whom and in response to what.
But I could imagine it being used as “what are you trying to do?”, or “what do you expect me to do?”.
For というんだ, I’m not sure which bunpro points to link, but combined it sounds like asking for a confirmation in a forceful manner. “Is (X) really what you are trying to say here?”
And inside of (X), you have the volitional しよう Verb[よう] (JLPT N4) | Bunpro, that the speaker is attributing to the listener.
That could be interpreted as an implied intention (“looks like you are trying to do something, so what are you trying to do?”), or implied invitation (“looks like you are encouraging me to do something, so what do you want from me?”).
It’s also entirely possible that I’m completely off base here and it means something else.
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This is the context. The speaker is on the way to his destination, and then some militar prople seize him. It’s in that situation thank he says that sentence: 何をしようというんだ
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Hey @Michakun !
The translation you found is good, but if we translated 何をしようというんだ more literally (in this context), it would look like ‘What are you saying that you will do to me’ and has a nuance of ‘What the hell are you going to do (to me)’.
The grammar breakdown for this sentence:
Hope this helps!
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