how
part of speech
adverb; conjunction (I know how to swim)
meaning for a pupil
1) How asks in what way: How do you make a kite? tree →
2) With «many» or «much», how asks about an amount: how many apples, how much water. tree →
3) With an adjective, how asks about size, age and so on: how old, how tall, how far, how long. tree →
4) How asks about feelings or health: How are you? tree →
5) How can show surprise: How kind of you! tree →
6) (casual) «How come?» means why; «how's it going?», «how ya going?» (Australia), «howya» (Ireland) and «how are ya» are greetings; «and how!» means very much so. tree →
7) (rough) «How thick are you?» or «how many times do I have to tell you?» are angry put-downs, not real questions. tree →
8) (formal) The exam voice replaces «how many» and «how much» with «determine the number of», «ascertain the quantity of», «state the magnitude of», «in what manner». tree →
9) How can also mean the way in which something is done or happens. tree →
sense in the lessons
in «how many» and «how much» the question for a number; «how many more … than» asks for a difference; «how long» asks for time or length; in science «how does it work?»; in everyday life «How are you?», «how to», «how about …?» (a suggestion); in casual talk «how come», «how ya going», «how many he got left then»; in rough talk angry questions that need no answer; in the exam voice «Determine the number of …», «State the quantity …», «In what manner …»
examples
- How many apples are on the table? tree →
- How many more books does Tom have than Ben? tree →
- How much money does Sara have left? tree →
- How old are you? tree →
- How far is it to the park? tree →
- Can you show me how to tie my shoes? tree →
- How are you today? tree →
- How about a game of tag? tree →
- bus at 8:40 its 8:25 now, how long tree →
- How come you've got more than me? tree →
- How many times do I have to tell you, it's 12! tree →
- Ascertain the quantity of monetary funds remaining in Sara's possession. tree →
- That is how I lost it. tree →
note
«how many» asks for a number, not the operation; «determine the number of» and «ascertain the quantity of» in an exam ask the same. Trap: «how many more … than» asks for a difference, not a sum. Use «how many» with things you can count (apples) and «how much» with things you cannot count (water, money). «How come?» means «why?». «how many times do I have to tell you» is anger, not a counting question. An hour has 60 minutes: «how long from 8:25 to 8:40» is 15 minutes.
In the corpora
- Banks offer children's accounts to keep savings safe and teach how banks work.
- A credit score is a rating of how reliably someone pays; missing payments lowers it and makes borrowing harder and dearer.
- Disagreeing is normal; talking it through is how couples decide things together.
- A hangover is how the body feels the day after drinking too much alcohol: headache, tiredness, thirst and feeling sick.
- Voting is secret, so nobody has to tell anyone how they voted, not even their own family.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «how» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.