LiveinjapanCould anyone tell me the difference between the sentences below?
How do I look?
How do I look like?
What do I look like?
how and
like are mutually exclusive. You cannot have both in these sorts of expressions. Once you use
how, you must suppress
like. So
*How do I look like is impossible!
how? and like what? mean almost the same thing when the verb is look. But there are important differences. Note the groupings below.
Susan looks [sad]. *Susan looks [how]? [How] does Susan look?
Susan looks like [a clown]. *Susan looks like [what]? [What] does Susan look like?
Susan looks [like a clown]. *Susan looks [like what]? *Susan looks [how]? [How] does Susan look?
_______
[How] does Susan look? She looks [sad].
[How] does Susan look? She looks [like a clown].
[What] does Susan look like? She looks like [a clown].
__________
So How? substitutes for an adverbial expression -- which can be a prepositional phrase "like ..." or a single word adverb or any other appropriate adverbial expression.
And What? (in "like what?") substitutes for a noun -- which can only be the noun that fits after the preposition like.
_________
What
makes this difficult if you are imitating the speech of natives is that
the missing (fourth) pattern is not quite right logically, but people do use it
anyway, treating the combination as an idiom.
[What] does Susan look [like]? She looks [sad].
CJ