Lesson 4
4. 뭐 해? What are you doing? (casual) / 뭐 하세요? What are you doing? (formal)
뭐 means “what” and 하다 means “to do”. So, 뭐 해? Literally means “What do you do?” As you can see, there’s no “you” in the sentence. In most Korean sentences, subjects are often omitted. It can be you or any other person depending on the context. But, if someone says 뭐 해? to you without any context, it clearly shows that the person is asking you what you’re doing.
When you want to say it more politely, you can add 요 at the end and say 뭐 해요?. If you want to be even more polite and formal, you can say 뭐 하세요? So, in the order of politeness levels, it goes like 뭐 해? → 뭐 해요? → 뭐 하세요? from the most casual to the most formal.
If you want to learn more about politeness levels, check out our Core Grammar lesson about it (click here)
Other phrases you can use to mean “What are you doing?”
뭐 하고 있어? What are you doing? (casual)
뭐 하고 계세요? What are you doing? (formal)
뭐 하고 있었어? What were you doing? (casual)
뭐 하고 계셨어요? What were you doing? (formal)
Practice this phrase with other verbs.
뭐 먹어? What are you eating?
뭐 마셔? What are you drinking?
뭐 봐? What are you watching?
뭐 들어? What are you listening to?
Sample Conversation
A: 뭐 해? = What are you doing?
B: 일해. = I’m working.