Grammar Reference. Unit 6

6.1 What ... like?

What is / are / was /were ... like? is used to ask about the permanent nature of people and things. It asks for a description or an impression or a comparison.

What's the health service like in your country?
What are the new students like?

Be careful:

1. With a description or an impression, we don't use like in the answer.

What's London like?
It's quite big, and it's very interesting.
NOT It's like quite big...

What's Amanda like?
She's tall, attractive, and very funny.
NOT She's like tall...

2. With a comparison, we can use like in the answer. Here, like means similar to / the same as.

What's London like?
It's like New York, but without the tall buildings. (= It's similar to...)

What's Amanda's daughter like?
She's just like Amanda. (She's the same as...)

6.2 How ... ?

1. How ... ? is used to ask about the present condition of something that can change.

How's work these days?
It's better than last years.

How was the traffic this morning?
It was worse than usual.

To ask about the weather, we can use both questions.

How's the weather where you are?
What's the weather like where you are?

2. How ... ? is also used to ask about people's health and happiness.

Compare:

How's Peter? He's fine.
What's Peter like? He's a nice guy. He's quite tall, has dark hair...

3. How ... ? is also used to ask about people's reactions and feelings.

How's your meal?
How's your new job?

6.3 How ... ? or What ... like?

Sometimes we can use What ... like? or How ... ?, but they aren't the same.

What ... like? asks for an objective description.
How ... ? asks for personal feelings. Compare:

How's the party? It's great!
What's the party like? It's very noisy, but there's lots to eat and drink.

6.4 Verb + -ing or infinitive

Verb Patterns - ing or infinitive. Learners often make mistakes when using the infinitive and the -ing form.

The -ing form is used after prepositions.
He put off doing his assignment

The infinitive is used to show purpose ( why you are doing something).
She phoned to check everything was alright.

However, the most problematic areas is that certain verbs are followed by particular verb patterns. Here are some examples.

Verb usually followed by infinitive: He promised to do the washing up.
Verb usually followed by infinitive without 'to': He made me leave the party early because he was jealous.
Verbs followed by an object and 'to': He persuaded me to go to the party.
Verb usually followed by -ing: He put off doing the washing up.
Verb which can be followed by both with out changing the meaning: He started to do the washing up. He started doing the washing up.
Verb which can be followed by both but changes the meaning: He remembered getting up but after that he couldn't remember anything. He remembered to get up early because he had a job interview.

6.5 Relative clauses

1. Relative clauses are used to tell us which person or thing we are talking about. They make it possible to give more information about the person or thing being spoken about.

The boy has gone to the beach. (Which boy?)
The boy who lives next door has gone to the beach.

The book is very good (Which book?)
The book that I bought yesterday is very good.

This is a photo of the hotel. (Which hotel?)
This is a photo of the hotel where we stayed.

2. We use who to refer to people (and we can use that).

The book is about a girl who marries a vampire.

We use that to refer to things (and we can also use which).

What was the name of the horse that won the race?

3. When who or that is the object of a relative clause, it can be left out.

The person you need to talk to is on a holiday.
The book I bought yesterday is very good.

But when who or that is the subject of a relative clause, it must be included.

I like people who are kind and considerate.
I want a computer that is easy to use.

4. Which can be used to refer to the whole previous sentence or idea.

I passed my driving test on my first attempt, which surprised everyone.
Jane can't come to the party, which is a shame.

5. We use whose to refer to someone's possessions.

That's the woman whose dog ran away.
That's the man whose wife won the lottery.

6. We can use where to refer to places.

The hotel where we stayed was right on the beach.
We went back to the place where we first met.

6.6 Participles

Participles after a noun define and identify in the same way as relative clauses.

That woman driving the red Porsche is my aunt.
The men seen outside were probably the thieves.