what for

English edit

what for (not comparable)

For what purpose.
What is this tool for?

That's what friends are for.
(colloquial) For what reason; why.
He wants four copies of it? What for?

Ow! What did you do that for?

What do you want to know for?

for what purpose

Hebrew: בשביל מה (bishvíl ma)
Hungarian: mire (hu)
Spanish: para qué
Tibetan: ག་རེའི་དོན་ལ (ga re'i don la) (colloquial), ག་རེ་བྱད་ཡག་རེད (ga re byad yag red) (colloquial), གང་གི་དོན་དུ (gang gi don du) (literary)

for what reason; why

Arabic: لِمَ (ar) (lima), لِمَاذَا (limāḏā)
Breton: da betra (br)
Chinese:
Hakka: 做麼个 (cho-má-ke)

Hokkien: 是按怎 (sī-án-choáⁿ), 為甚物／为甚物 (ūi-sím-mi̍h), 為啥物／为啥物 (ūi-siáⁿ-mi̍h)

Mandarin: 為什麼／为什么 (zh) (wèishénme)
Estonian: miks (et)
Finnish: miksi (fi), minkä takia, minkä vuoksi, mitä varten
French: pourquoi (fr)
German: wofür (de)
Hebrew: למה (he) (láma), בשביל מה (bishvíl ma)
Hungarian: miért (hu), minek (hu)
Indonesian: untuk apa
Irish: cén fáth, cad chuige
Italian: perché (it)
Japanese: どうして (dōshite)
Macedonian: зошто (mk) (zošto), чуму (čumu)
Malay: untuk apa
Polish: po co (pl), dlaczego (pl)
Portuguese: para quê?
Russian: заче́м (ru) (začém), для чего́ (dlja čevó), за что́ (za štó)
Spanish: por qué (es) (idiom)
Swedish: varför (sv), av vilken anledning
Tibetan: ག་རེ་བྱས་ནས (ga re byas nas) (colloquial), ཅིའི་ཕྱིར (ci'i phyir) (literary)
Tok Pisin: watpo
Ukrainian: навіщо (naviščo)
Yiddish: צו וואָס (tsu vos)

what for (plural what fors)

an unspecified punishment or rebuke