How Is It? (どう)

どう思いますか is the standard way to ask someone’s opinion, literally “how do you think.” English needs a different verb, “think,” Japanese just reuses どう plus 思う, the same “think” verb from Give and Take.

どうすればいい (literally “if [I] do how, is [it] good”) is the fixed way to ask “what should I do about this.” It shows up constantly as a complete phrase, worth learning as one chunk rather than building it fresh every time.

Dropped down to casual speech, どう alone becomes a quick way to offer something, closer to “how about it?” than a real question about quality. どうですか offers the same thing more politely, and いかがですか is the version reserved for someone senior, offering a guest tea or a boss a drink.