Harmony
Joined: 23 Mar 2006
Posts: 140
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 Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2006 9:31 am Post subject: |
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| Chan-Seung Lee wrote: |
What is the difference between 'What does she look like today?' and 'How does she look today?'?
And also, I'd like to know the proper answers to the above examples each.
Thanks. |
Hi Chan-Seung Lee,
The two sentences are almost identical.
The word "today" implies a comparison. If you haven't seen her in a while you might use either question to ask what she looks like now. However, in certain situations one sentence would be more appropriate than the other. If someone has been ill you might ask, "How does she look today?" In this case "What does she look like today?" would sound insensitive.
In general "what" is used when the tone is neutral or negative. Imagine a conversation like this:
Mrs. White: I just saw your friend coming out of the hairdresser's shop.
Mrs. Black: Her hair's a different color every week. What does she look like today? If Mrs. Black had said, "Her hair's a different color every week. How does she look today?" the negative overtones would have been a good deal less.
"What . . . like?" questions are often answered with a direct comparison to another object or state. "How . . . ?" questions are typically used to ask for descriptive information regarding mood, health or appearance in a positive sense.
Here's a link with more information:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/learnit/learnitv334.shtml
You asked for the proper answer to each of the questions. I'm not able to do this as the answer depends entirely upon the circumstance in which the question has been asked. Here are some examples that I hope you will find helpful:
What does she look like today?
She looks the same as she did yesterday.
She looks like a cat that's been out in the rain.
She looks like a totally different person.
She looks as if she's just gotten out of bed.
She's wearing the same green dress she always wears.
She's done something to her hair, but I'm not sure it suits her.
How does she look today?
She looks great! I think she's feeling much better.
She looks worried. I hope she hasn't had more bad news.
She looks fine. I think that cold is finally gone.
She looks terrible. I can't imagine what could be wrong!
She looks beautiful. That blue dress really shows off her eyes.
She's every bit as lovely as she was twenty years ago.
It's certainly possible to compose sentences with radically different connotations, but I chose these examples because I believe they show typical use. If anyone wishes to expand upon this topic I'm certainly open to hearing different points of view.
~ ~ ~ Harmony  |
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