なぜ対どうして。。。

Does it matter when I use なぜ in comparison to どうして or are there set rules?

I just looked the two up and I realised that there are nuances that I didn’t know about. I’m not so certain about those, so I’ll avoid addressing them lest I give you incorrect information. However, generally speaking, the main difference is that どうして is broader, as you might be able to guess from its literal translation: どう=how + して=doing. なぜ is just limited to discussing reasons i.e. why something or other happened or was done. On the other hand, どうして has other functions beyond that: it can also mean ‘how/in what way’ (more literally something like ‘in what way did you/he/the environment etc act (in order to produce this result)?’), and can express a sense of disbelief or denial (something like ‘how in the world’ or ‘how come’). That’s the basic difference, as far as I know. It’s probably not impossible for なぜ to have those nuances, but it seems quite reason-focused.

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I see, thank you!

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