たらどう

The structure たらどう is used to make suggestions or give advice, equivalent to "why don't you…?" or "how about…?" in English. It combines the conditional たら form of a verb with どう ("how"), literally meaning "how would it be if you…?"

Politeness levels

The basic form たらどう is casual and used among friends or family. For more polite situations, you can say たらどうですか or the even more formal たらいかがですか.

Nuance

While たらどう is a common way to offer friendly advice, it can sometimes carry a slightly pushy or critical tone depending on context and intonation – similar to how "why don't you just…?" can sound in English. For softer suggestions, 〜～ほうがいい or 〜～たらきごう？ (with a rising intonation) may be preferred.

The subject of the suggestion is almost always the listener (you), so it is typically omitted. The full form would be たらどうですか, but in casual speech the ですか is frequently dropped.