Translation guide
In Japanese, asking 'what sort of' is typically done with どんな (donna) or どのような (dono yō na), which are placed before a noun. The choice depends on formality and context. Unlike English, the word order is fixed: the question word comes directly before the noun.
The speaker wants to know the category, characteristics, or nature of something.
The most common and casual way to ask 'what sort of'. Used in everyday conversation. It directly modifies a noun.
What sort of music do you like?
What sort of book is that?
A more formal and written equivalent of どんな. Often used in polite speech or formal writing.
What sort of business do you have? (formal)
What sort of problem occurred?
Similar to どんな, but often implies asking for an explanation or definition. Can be slightly more direct.
What do you mean? (lit. What sort of meaning?)
What's that supposed to mean? / What's going on?
The speaker wants concrete examples or a more detailed description.
A common pattern to ask 'what sort of things exist/are there?'.
What sort of shops are there around here?
Adding 具体的に (specifically) before どんな makes the request for specifics explicit.
What sort of problems did you have, specifically?
The speaker wants to know what kind of person someone is.
The standard way to ask 'what sort of person'. 人 can be replaced with other nouns like 先生 (teacher) or 友達 (friend).
What sort of person is he?
What sort of person is the new teacher?
どんな asks about the nature or type of something, while 何の asks about the specific name or category. For example, どんな本？ means 'What kind of book (interesting, long, etc.)?', while 何の本？ means 'What book (title/subject)?'.
What sort of book are you reading? (asking about genre or quality)
What book are you reading? (asking for the title or subject)
どんな must be followed by a noun. You cannot say どんなですか to mean 'What sort is it?'. Instead, use どんなものですか or どんな感じですか.
What sort of thing is it?
What's it like? (more casual)