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Can anyone tell me the difference between How about and What about in the following sentences?

What should I say: What about her or How about her ?

And,

Should I say What about playing cards or How about playing cards?

Rucheer M
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Jessica Reichenbach Debons
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    They are interchangeable in the example you've given. Both mean "Why don't we play cards!" or "Let's play cards" -- an invitation or suggestion. – Tᴚoɯɐuo Sep 10 '16 at 10:54
  • They may be _practically_ interchangeable, but the mental experience of a native speaker hearing them is slightly different. https://english.stackexchange.com/a/460743/443 – iconoclast Aug 20 '18 at 02:40

2 Answers2

10

There is some difference in usage between how about and what about.

If you are planning something with a friend and you want to raise some potential problem, you would only use what about- effectively as a short form for what shall we do about.... If you want to suggest a new idea or a possible solution to a problem, you can use either what about or how about.

Person A: How about/what about going sailing tomorrow! -suggestion
Person B: Nice idea, but what about the kids? - potential problem
Person A: Could we get somebody to baby sit?
Person B: How about/what about your neighbour's daughter? - suggested solution

Looking at your sentences:

what about/how about her? -if she's a suggestion or a solution
what about her? - if she's a potential problem.

.

What about/how about playing cards? -playing cards is a suggestion

JavaLatte
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    It sounds good in theory, but in practice I don't buy the idea that ***What** about X?* is more appropriate than ***How** about X?* if X is a *problem*, rather than a *suggestion/solution*. Google Books claims 136,000 instances of [***How** about the cost*](https://www.google.com/search?tbm=bks&q=%22how+about+the+cost%22), but only 19,100 [***What** about the cost*](https://www.google.com/search?tbm=bks&q=%22what+about+the+cost%22), and I'd say ***cost*** is *always* a problem, never a solution. – FumbleFingers Sep 10 '16 at 12:38
  • @FumbleFingers: That's curious: with Ngram it's clearly the other way round... https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=how+about+the+cost%2C+what+about+the+cost&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Chow%20about%20the%20cost%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cwhat%20about%20the%20cost%3B%2Cc0 What's more interesting is that if you separate out BrE and AmE, **none** of the **how about the cost** references are BrE: and I am writing from a BrE perspective. – JavaLatte Sep 10 '16 at 14:51
  • *Very* strange. Being British myself, I suppose I must have a BrE perspective too, but I don't think the lack of BrE **how about the cost** in your NGram necessarily implies any US/UK usage split (there are actually only 32 instances *in total*). Looking at my first comment again, I can see it *might* be taken as implying I thought the *opposite* distinction applied, but actually what I meant was I think the two forms are effectively *interchangeable* (though individual speakers may have preferences). Which I still think, though I don't understand those conflicting Books / NGrams results. – FumbleFingers Sep 10 '16 at 15:47
  • I don't know if they're enough to be statistically significant, but there are 7 hits in Books for [how about the downside](https://www.google.com/search?tbm=bks&q=%22how+about+the+downside%22), against a "guestimated" 2100 for [what about the downside](https://www.google.com/search?tbm=bks&q=%22what+about+the+downside%22) (which turns out to be just 25 if you scroll to the third page of results). In which context it *may* be relevant that ***downside*** had negligible currency until a few decades ago, and is more AmE than BrE even today. – FumbleFingers Sep 10 '16 at 15:57
  • @FumbleFingers, I have added links to my answer that back up my assertion that **what about** is more likely to be used for "what shall we do about" situations (see item 4 in **what about**). – JavaLatte Sep 10 '16 at 16:22
  • Well, I don't intend to vote one way or the other, and I've made my point in the first comment here. We're trying to establish usage preferences for a primarily *spoken* expression using *written* sources anyway. But even if it could be proved that the *majority* of speakers actually observe the distinction you make, that certainly doesn't imply the "less common" choice would be in any sense "incorrect". And I honestly can't see how those two definitions support taking a strong position on this one. – FumbleFingers Sep 10 '16 at 16:47
  • @JavaLatte, and sounds ok above, no? – Pacerier May 09 '17 at 17:53
  • @Pacerier, which 'above' are you referring to? – JavaLatte May 09 '17 at 18:07
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There are 3 scenarios in total: objection, suggestion and caring about. You would only use what about in first case. "How about/what about" are interchangeable for other two situations.

Let's say A and B are discussing the vacation.

A: How about/what about a vacation to Hawaii? (suggestion)

B: Great idea, but what about the dogs? (objection, potential problem)

A: My parents will look after them.

When the friends are Hawaii, they drink a lot at party.

A: I am so drunk. How about/what about you? (caring about, asking about what someone is doing or feeling)

WXJ96163
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