What's the weather like vs. How's the weather?

[Conchita]

[Yankee]

Hi Conchita

I think one problem is that ESL textbooks invariably focus on the question "How are you?" As I see it, that particular question has two functions, both of which are only related to health or well-being:

1) A meaningless, but standard and polite "non-question". Theoretically, you are politely inquiring about someone's general well-being and/or health, but it is not really a question. Instead, it's a just a standard greeting used in order to be polite. Not more. If you happen to be suffering from a killer headache and a terrible case of the runs when someone asks you that question, you certainly are not expected to mention or go into any detail about your current state of ill-health. Instead, an equally standard but meaningless response is expected. For example: "Fine thanks, and you?" or "Not too bad. How are you?"

2) An honest question that a friend might ask out of real interest and concern about your general well-being and/or health. Someone might also ask how your family is. In this case, the response is less likely to be a standard answer and more likely to be a more "truthful" and detailed response about general health/well-being.

But, I don't think any of this is news to you.

If you ask "How is he/she/it?" (i.e. third person), the question is frequently an inquiry about someone's health. However, the broader context plays a role in whether someone's health or something else is actually being inquired about. Asking "How's your new boss?" is likely to be the same sort of question as "How's the weather?" or "How's the soup?" In other words, the expected response will likely include some descriptive adjectives -- none of which is likely to be health-related.
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Amy
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ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English

[Conchita]

[Mister Micawber]

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I'm curious as to which textbooks, Conchita, because I have not noticed that in the ones I use here. Are they texts for the European market? Are they written by native speakers?

Perhaps it is a case of the vain wish to simplify-- I certainly run across other cases where texts offer limited language solutions to circumstances that actually accept a vast range of possible responses.
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Canadian-American native speaker
who teaches English for a living at Mister Micawber's
ESL cafe: Interview with Mr. Micawber

[Yankee]

Hi Conchita,

I suppose the generalization is justifiable for low level learners.
Have you seen the same thing in, say, an intermediate or upper intermediate ESL book?
_________________
Amy
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ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English

[Jamie (K)]

Textbooks by nature have to limit the variety of language a bit, just because, at least at lower levels, you can't fit in too many options. It's very easy to hear which structures, sentences and phrases are in a given country's textbooks and are practiced, once you talk to a number of people from that country.

If you ask an unmarried Vietnamese if he or she is married, the immediate answer is almost always, "No, I'm still single," with the word "still" drawn out. I assume this sentence is in their textbooks, because almost everyone from Vietnam says it. People from other countries have their own standard, drilled textbook sentences that are easy to detect.

In my first year of speaking Czech, it was pointed out to me that I used correct but unusual words for "usually" and other terms in that language. The people in the town figured out that those words must have been in our Czech language textbooks, and of course they were right.

[Conchita]

[Miss Wendy]

Thank you all. I got what I needed.

Cheers!

[Jamie (K)]

[CambridgeGuy]

Greeting to all readers!!

The difference between "how" and "what" is that "how" is used to ask the state of the noun and "what" is used to ask the quality of the noun!

EX:
How: how is your mother? >>> Answer using adverbs or adjectives that describe state!
(Ex: happy, sad, sick, etc...)
What: what is your mother like? >>> Answer using adjectives that describe quality!
(Ex: ugly, beautiful, intelligent, old, etc...)

So can we use how and what to describe weather????? >>> Answer: No, we can only use "what" for weather, because we are always going to be describing the quality of the weather!!

Irregularity: "cold" and "hot"; but even though these adjectives are use to describe "the state of the noun"; when you used them to ask the description of the weather, they change from a "adjective of state" to “quality"

Therefore, we should only use "what...like" for asking about the weather.

What is the weather like in England? >>> Answer: The weather is cold (Quality)

Now people check the rules before jumping into conclusions of what is colloquial English and what is formal English!

Everyone have a nice day!!

From: Oliver.c.Lores

[Torsten]

Hi Oliver,

Many thanks for joining our forum. I hope it's OK for you that I've changed your user name since the one you had chosen contained words we don't accept on our site.

Let me know what you think.
Regards,
Torsten
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Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary

[Yankee]

Hi Oliver

Your post seems to rule out any possible use of "How is your new boss?" as an acceptable alternative for "What is your new boss like?"

It also seems to rule out any possible use of "How is the weather today?" Your post seems to say that we can never view the weather as being in a particular or temporary state.

Or have I misinterpreted your post?
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_________________
Amy
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ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English

[CambridgeGuy]

Hi Amy,

I am not ruling out the possibility of asking "How is your new boss?". Lets keep in mind that when asking a question with "How..."you are going to be receiving and answer describing state.
What is State?
State is a temporary condition describing how a person or thing feels at the designated moment.

Weather does not feel anything. Does it?
Weather is always going to be either sunny/rainy/cloudy/snowy etc.... Its not going to feel something different....that is why we describe it (the weather) using adjectives of quality.
Even if these qualities are temporary (one day its sunny the next its cloudy).

Colloquially we say "How's the weather?" but that is an informal use...which is allowed because the constant usage of such term has become popularized.
But in a FORMAL context it does not make sense because of the above explanation.

Formal: How's your mother? (sick, tired, irritated, well)
Formal: What's your mother like? (beautiful, ugly, tall, intelligent)

Colloquialism: How's the weather? (upset, angry, horrible, terrible, etc...)
Formal: What's the weather like? (sunny, cloudy, rainy, hot, cold etc...)

[Torsten]

[Mister Micawber]

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I'm afraid that I find your effort to distinguish the two a bit too prescriptive, CambridgeGuy. Neither utterance is particularly formal (in what formal context do we ask about the weather or the boss?) and neither (at least in your examples) seems to express a more permanent state ('horrible' vs 'rainy')-- and in the end, no native speakers stop to consider logic unless their writing is going to receive a grade.

In AmE, at least, a meteorological enquiry is at least as like to take the form 'How's the weather?' as 'What's the weather like?'-- the latter of which to my ears actually sounds less formal!

Similarly, 'How's your new boss?' and 'What's your new boss like?' are liable to elicit the same response without a moment of hesitation by the interlocutor: 'Oh, he's OK'.
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_________________
Canadian-American native speaker
who teaches English for a living at Mister Micawber's
ESL cafe: Interview with Mr. Micawber