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Structure of "how about and what about"



 
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ESL Forum | English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
"Key to getting" vs "Key to get" | conditional clause
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Structure of "how about and what about" #1 (permalink) Tue Oct 02, 2007 3:01 am   Structure of "how about and what about"
 

I am used to the sentences below;

They are used to make a suggestion
1. How about having dinner together tomorrow evening?
2. What about a new pair of shoes for Robert on his birthday?

They are used to bring up points
1. What about the reports? Who is going to do them?
2. How about the dishes? I am not going to do it for sure.

++++++++++++++++++++++
I am also used to the sentence structure below;

A. how about / what about + present continuous form
Ex.
1.What about starting the discussion now?
2.How about eating noodles instead?

B. how about / what about + noun
Ex.
1.What about the new dinner tables? Are we going to buy it today?
2.How about a dinner together some time?

Can we build up sentences as follows:
1. How about we see a movie?
2. What about we go to Seychelles next summer?

Can we also use "what say" that often as follows?
1. What say we go to Beijing this weekend?
2. What say rowing a boat together now?

I know this is quite a job for you, if you would answer me. But thanks a lot if you would.
Storm
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Joined: 27 Jun 2007
Posts: 41
Location: Thailand

Structure of "how about and what about" #2 (permalink) Tue Oct 02, 2007 9:07 am   Structure of "how about and what about"
 

storm wrote:
Can we build up sentences as follows:
1. How about we see a movie?
2. What about we go to Seychelles next summer?

Yes, this structure is also used. It sounds rather informal to me.

storm wrote:
Can we also use "what say" that often as follows?
1. What say we go to Beijing this weekend?
2. What say rowing a boat together now?

Whereas structure number one is in use, your second example doesn't sound right at all.
Conchita
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Joined: 26 Dec 2005
Posts: 2826
Location: Madrid, Spain

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Structure of "how about and what about" #3 (permalink) Wed Oct 03, 2007 16:40 pm   Structure of "how about and what about"
 

In the "what say" segment, number two could go like this:

What say we row a boat? (you don't really need "together" or "now", though neither word is illegal, per se)
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Structure of "how about and what about" #4 (permalink) Wed Oct 03, 2007 16:41 pm   Structure of "how about and what about"
 

Though I prefer the more direct approach:

Let's row a boat.
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Structure of "how about and what about" #5 (permalink) Wed Oct 03, 2007 16:41 pm   Structure of "how about and what about"
 

...NOW!

hehe
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Structure of "how about and what about" #6 (permalink) Thu Oct 04, 2007 2:08 am   Structure of "how about and what about"
 

hehe ...
Storm
I'm new here and I like it ;-)


Joined: 27 Jun 2007
Posts: 41
Location: Thailand

Structure of "how about and what about" #7 (permalink) Thu Oct 04, 2007 8:51 am   Structure of "how about and what about"
 

...gently down the stream,

Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,

Life is but a dream.


Or, if you aren't too musically minded, you could just say: 'Let's go for a row' or 'Let's go rowing'.
Conchita
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Joined: 26 Dec 2005
Posts: 2826
Location: Madrid, Spain

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