"きょ年は何をしましたか？"

Translation: What did you do last year?

[darthoctopus]

去年は何をしましたか

[ClairaTayl]

Shouldn't last year be 先年?

[Shinobusagi]

去年（きょねん）= "last year", as in: the year before the current year.

先年（せんねん）= "[a few] years ago": some years prior to this one.

前年（ぜんねん）= "(the) year before" / "(the) previous year", relative to a particular occassion.

[deactivated user]

Why not "What have you done last year?"

[IzaakLisovsky]

You don't use Present Perfect when you got the time of action

[Prokipest]

Why 'you' and not "I"? What indicates the person in this sentence?

[mzerrath]

Context, usually. If the conversation were about the speaker, this presupposes the speaker has amnesia. Because most questions here assume the topic is about the listener, it's safer to presuppose you're getting to know the other person; in this case, you're asking the listener what they did last year.

Unlike English, which tends to be specific and requires an explicit subject, Japanese tends to flow with the context. If you see a question here, it's better to assume you're asking for information about the listener from the listener (unless it begins with "watashi wa" or "boku wa," or if the conversation is about the speaker's amnesia, which is a rare topic anyway).

[Prokipest]

Ok, thanks for being so thorough :)

[TanjaR8]

I think it's because questions are usually asked to someone else.

[gt5364e]

What happened last year not okay?

[AndrewFlan10]

しました means "did", not "happened". The difference in meaning is important.

[elizadeux]

I've been told that は after non-specific time expressions such as きょ年 isn't common. You can optionally add は after non-specific time expression to add emphasis, but I don't understand why then Duolingo seems to require it. Is there something that I'm missing or not understanding?

[kalun11]

Why is 今年 wrong?