What ... like?

1. Look at this questions and answer:

A: What's Julie like?
B: She's very pretty and she's very kind, but she's not very clever.


We use What ... like? to ask about person's physical appareance ( tall, short, pretty, etc.) or character (interesting, boring, friendly, unfriendly, etc).

We can also use What ... like? to ask about places, books, films and events (e.g. a party, a football match):

A:What's Rio de Janeiro like?
B: Well, the beaches are wonderfull but the traffic is awful.

A:What's Spielberg's latest film like?
B: It's excellent.

2. We use look like? to talk about someone's appearance:

A:What does Julie look like?
B: She's tall with brown hair.

We can also use like with taste, feel, sound and smell:

A:What does that taste like?
B: It taste like cheese.

A: What is this material?
B: I don't know. It looks like wool but it feels like cotton.

3. We can also use like, with the question word Who and in statements, to mean "similar to":

A: Who's Julie like- her father or her mother?
B: She's like her mother. (= she is similar to her mother.)

Rio de Janeiro is like Buenos Aires. (= Rio is similar to Buenos Aires.)

4. The word like in What's she like? is a preposition; it is not the verb like. Here is an example of like used as a verb:

A: What music does Julie like?
B: She likes rock music.

5. We usually use How?, not What ... like?, when we ask about someone's health or temporary state:

A: How's your brother today?
B: He's feeling much better.

A: How was your boss today?
B: He was very friendly today!