어떡해 vs 어떻게 — A Mistake Even Advanced Learners Make
어떡해 and 어떻게 sound almost identical. But they mean completely different things — and mixing them up is one of the most common mistakes even advanced Korean learners make.
You're texting a Korean friend. Something went wrong. You want to say "what do I do?"
You type: 어떻게.
Your friend understands. But something is slightly off.
The word you needed was 어떡해.
These two words sound almost the same. They look almost the same. But they are not the same — and knowing the difference will immediately make your Korean sound more natural.
The two words
The key difference
These two words look similar but do very different jobs.
어떡해 = emotional exclamation — Oh no! What do I do?
어떻게 = question word meaning how — How do you do that?
Think of it this way: 어떡해 is something you say when you're panicking. 어떻게 is something you use when you're asking for information.
In conversation
어떡해 vs 어떻게
Two friends, one just spilled coffee on their laptop
Side by side
A quick spelling trick
If you can replace the word with "oh no, what do I do?" — use 어떡해.
If you can replace the word with "how" — use 어떻게.
어떡해 stands alone. 어떻게 always needs a verb after it.
Cultural note
This mix-up happens even among native Korean speakers in informal writing — you'll sometimes see 어떡해 and 어떻게 used interchangeably in text messages. But in formal writing, they're always kept distinct.
For learners, the easiest way to remember: 어떡해 sounds like it has a slight ae sound at the end (해). That ae carries the emotion. When you hear that ending, you're hearing someone react — not ask.
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