The adverbhowmost commonly means ‘in what way’ or ‘to what extent’.
Howin questions
We usehowwhen we introduce direct and indirect questions:
I haven’t seen you for ages.Howare you?
Howwas the film? Was it as bad as you thought?
Do you knowhowI can get to the bus station?
I asked herhowshe was but she didn’t answer me.
We usehowto introduce questions about measurements or amounts:
Howold is your grandfather?
Howoften do you get to your cottage at weekends?
Howmuch does the average DVD player cost these days?
[the ‘Prado’ is a museum and art gallery in Madrid]
Howfar is it to the Prado andhowlong will it take us to get there by taxi?
Howin indirect questions
We often usehowwith verbs such astell,wonderandknowin indirect questions:
I just don’t knowhowshe manages to cook so well in such a small kitchen.
I wonderhowthey do that.
Howin exclamations
In exclamations we usehowbefore adjectives, adverbs and verb phrases. In verb phrases the word order is subject + verb:
They’ve bought her some flowers.Hownice of them!
Howfantastic!
Howbeautifully they sang!
Howwe love New York!
We don’t usehowwith a noun phrase. We usewhat:
Whata gorgeous coat!
Not:How a gorgeous coat!
See also:
Exclamations
What
How about…?
In informal speaking we commonly usehow about+ noun phrase andhow about+-ingform when we make suggestions:
Liz,how aboutsome more fruit juice?
How aboutgoing to the concert with us this weekend?
See also:
Suggestions
Typical errors
In exclamations involving clauses, the word order is subject + verb:
HowI love real Italian ice-cream!
Not:How love I real Italian ice-cream!
We don’t usehowwith a noun phrase, we usewhat:
Whata nice idea!
Not:How a nice idea!