In this mini episode, you will learn how to use the (possibly confusing) expression “How do you like that?”
Episode 288 of the Everybody ESL podcast is a mini episode that teaches you how to use the (possibly confusing) expression “How do you like that?” Send your questions about English and your suggestions for future episodes to EverybodyESL@gmail.com! (And let me know if you’d like to record the introduction to a future episode.)
Intro
“Hello! This is Juhee, from South Korea. You are listening to Everybody ESL.”
Welcome to episode 288 of Everybody ESL, the podcast for everybody who wants to improve their English, practice their English, or just learn more English. My name is Ben, and I have a mini episode for you today, where I am going to teach you about one English topic. You can subscribe to the Everybody ESL podcast at Apple podcasts, on the Stitcher app, and wherever you find your podcasts. If you like Everybody ESL, leave it a good review so other people can find out about it too. And if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for me, please send an email to everybodyESL@gmail.com. Okay! Let’s get on with this mini episode.
The episode
In this episode, I am going to teach you how to use an interesting—and maybe confusing—expression. The reason I think it might be confusing is that it looks like a question, but it is not always actually a question.
This is the phrase that I’m talking about: “How do you like that?” How do you like that?
That’s how—h-o-w—do, you, like, that. How do you like that?
Sometimes this expression is used as a regular question, and it means, “Do you like that?” Or “What do you think about that?”
But you will often hear this as a kind of statement. And when it’s used as a statement, it will not have the regular question intonation. In those cases, it will sound like this: “How do you like that.” How do you like that. And not like this: “How do you like that?” You can hear when I say it that way, it sounds like any other kind of question. “How do you like that?”
But I’m talking about a different use of this phrase, a special use of this phrase. A use that might be a little bit confusing.
So when you hear this expression like this—How do you like that—it is not actually a question. Instead, it is an expression of surprise. It is a way of saying, “Well, that is interesting. Well, that is surprising or remarkable in some way.” And it could be something positive or something negative.
For example, let’s say you wake up, and you see that it has snowed. There is snow everywhere. If you think this is a great thing—if you think snow is great, and everything looks beautiful—you might say, “How do you like that. It snowed last night.” How do you like that. You are expressing some kind of surprise. You are saying, “Oh! Look! It snowed.”
If you don’t think snow is so great—maybe you were planning on driving somewhere that day, and the snow makes that very, very inconvenient—you could say the same thing. You could say, “How do you like that. It snowed last night.” And in that case, you would be expressing surprise and also some disappointment. You are saying, “Oh, it snowed. That’s not so great.”
In both cases, that expression—“How do you like that”—is expressing surprise. You are saying that something surprising happened, and that is interesting or remarkable in some way.
I should say that when this expression is not used as a question, it can have one other meaning. It can also be used to say something like, “Ha ha! I win. You lose and I win.” So it is an expression of triumph or victory. And when it is used in that way, it sounds like this: “How do you like that!”
And so there are two ways that expression is used when it is not a question.
And that is “How do you like that?”—an interesting expression that I think you should know.
Outro
This is the end of episode 288 of Everybody ESL. Remember: if you have questions about English, or if you have comments or suggestions for me, or if you would like to record an introduction that I can play at the beginning of future episodes—the same way Juhee recorded the introduction you heard at the beginning of this episode—send an email to everybodyESL@gmail.com. I’ll be back soon with a new episode, and until then, keep going, keep practicing, and keep learning. I’ll see you soon. Goodbye!