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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. – TimR 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

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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*, but only 19,100 *What about the cost*, 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, against a "guestimated" 2100 for what about the downside (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, <How about the kids?> and <How about her?> 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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