怎么办 vs 做什么

[Konstantinos]

1994年，理查德得了心脏病，当时医生说他剩下的时间可能不多了。那时，他开始思考自己的人生，“我该怎么办？ 我该做什么？”

This is from the Standard Book of HSK5, section 21.

I am in this point:

我(I)该(should)怎么(what)办(do)？ 我(I)该(should)做(do)什么(what)？

So what is the difference between 怎么办 vs 做什么?

Also, are all the 4 following versions accepted?

我该怎么办？
我该办怎么？
我该做什么？
我该什么做？

 

[skating-in-bc]

我该怎么办? What should I do?
我该办怎么？
我该做什么? What am I supposed to do?
我该什么做？

 

[zhg]

So what is the difference between 怎么办 vs 做什么?

Not much difference in this context. Although one can perhaps argue technically that 怎么办 means "How should I do this?" and 做什么 means "What to do?", I would advice you not to dig deep into this especially when the whole text is not meticulously composed.

 

[SuperXW]

我(I)该(should)怎么(what)办(do)？ 我(I)该(should)做(do)什么(what)？

怎么(what) is wrong.
怎么 = how
怎么办 = how to do

我该怎么办？

how to do?

我该办怎么？

do how?

我该做什么？

do what?

我该什么做？

what do?

 

[skating-in-bc]

"時日不多, 該怎麼辦" 的 "辦" (to handle), 跟 "時日不多, 該做什麼" 的 "做" (to do), 不是同一個意思。前者是問如何應對處理 (how to handle it), 後者是問什麼事必須幹 (what's to be done).

英文 "What should I do?" 的意思是 "How can I handle it? What's the right/best thing for me to do?" (我該怎麼辦, 如何是好?).