We all know that to communicate in a language accurately, we must pronounce well. But students often interchange some interrogative words like WHAT or HOW and the meaning is not the same.
So What’s the difference?
As you can see in the picture, these two people are meeting themselves for the first time! In Spanish, we often say: “¿Cómo te/le vá?
This “How do you do?” is commonly used in British English when we meet someone for the first time. Another way to greet someone in both American and British English is to say “Nice to meet you!”; “A pleasure to meet you!” or ” I’m glad to meet you!”
The point here is to know that “How do you do?” can be used in informal situations and only once! And the answer is the same expression! “How do you do?“
“What do you do?” is used to ask for people’s occupation or profession. The answer to this question would be: “I’m a teacher.”; “I’m a student.”; “I’m an architect.” to give some examples.
Listen at this short audio to see the pronunciation and intonation of both questions: