Breakdown of Was willst du eigentlich?
du
you (informal singular)
was
what
wollen
to want
eigentlich
actually, really
Questions & Answers about Was willst du eigentlich?
What does the word eigentlich add to this sentence?
Here, eigentlich acts as a conversational modal particle. It translates roughly to "actually" or "anyway" in this context. It softens the question, making it sound more curious and less aggressive. Without it, Was willst du? can sound quite blunt, like "What do you want?!"
Wait, doesn't willst mean "will" for the future tense?
No, this is a very common false friend! The verb wollen (where willst comes from) means "to want". If you want to talk about the future and say "What will you do?", you have to use the verb werden instead.
Can I use eigentlich to change the subject?
Yes! In spoken German, adding eigentlich to a question is a very natural way to signal a shift in thought. It acts a lot like saying "by the way" or "now that I think about it" in English.
Why does eigentlich come at the very end of the sentence?
In a simple question, the question word (Was) comes first, followed by the conjugated verb (willst) and the subject (du). Particles like eigentlich usually fall right after the subject. Because this sentence is so short, that happens to be the very end of the sentence.
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