[tcgv]

Explanation for non-native speakers (like me) who didn't know the rule:

The words "how" and "like" clash because "How" already implies manner or appearance, making the addition of "like" (which serves a similar function with "what") superfluous.

[hamdingers]

"How" expects an adjective -> "how does he look" "he looks happy"

"What" expects a noun -> "what is he?" "a dog"

"Like" invites a comparison -> "what does he look like?" "he looks like Lassie"

When you combine "how" and "like" it gives native speakers an itch because you're requesting I create a comparison with an adjective.

[devilbunny]

In this case. It's hard to make a firm rule because you can construct sentences with both words in them that aren't wrong-sounding, because the same word can be used in subtly grammatically different ways.

A good rule of thumb is to phrase the sentence as a question and see if it sounds correct. "What does it look like?" is fine. "How does it look?" is fine. "How does it look like?" does not. In the question "Like how?", "like" is more akin to "I said, like, what do you want me to do?" - I'm no linguist, but they do have a term for that use.

[sillyfluke]

Hah, this reminds me of the Isaac Asimov story about catching Nazi spies inflitrating the US...

Given Americans' general indifference to perfect grammer, if it "sounds" right they usually don't make a fuss. So they might have learned something new as well.

[keiferski]

I haven’t read the Asimov story, but it was probably based on this true event:

As a result, U.S. troops began asking other soldiers questions that they felt only Americans would know the answers to in order to flush out the German infiltrators, which included naming state capitals, sports and trivia questions related to the U.S., etc. This practice resulted in Brigadier General Bruce C. Clarke being held at gunpoint for some time after he incorrectly said the Chicago Cubs were in the American League[7][8][9][10] and a captain spending a week in detention after he was caught wearing German boots. General Omar Bradley was repeatedly stopped in his staff car by checkpoint guards who seemed to enjoy asking him such questions. The Skorzeny commando paranoia also contributed to numerous instances of mistaken identity. All over the Ardennes, U.S. soldiers attempted to persuade suspicious U.S. military policemen that they were genuine GIs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Greif

[sillyfluke]

Close and possibly inspired by it, but it's the reverse idea though -- that no real American would actually know all the words to the national anthem.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Refuge_Could_Save

[alistairSH]

Ugh, I'd fail any questions based on US sports. And, these days, 30 years removed high school civics, I'd likely miss some of the state capitals as well.

[dboreham]

> "sounds" right

This is how it actually works. The brain machine learns from available data and sorts out which is correct. "Sounds right" is the output from that neural network. The "rules" are then derived from what some set of people think sounds right.

[TurkTurkleton]

Hi, American here and "how" + "to look like" makes my teeth itch. However, people generally find grammar corrections to be needlessly pedantic when the erroneous grammar does not impede comprehension, so I've personally decided to choose my grammatical battles and simply fume about people talking about "how something looks like" in private instead.

[marssaxman]

I generally also choose to keep such complaints private, and I'm not sure what whim motivated me to speak up this time. Rather to my surprise, this trivial gripe has been voted up more than almost anything else I've written here over the last sixteen years. It would seem that there actually is, in some contexts, somehow, at least some appetite for grammatical pedantry!

[happytoexplain]

Language is tricky. One of the trickiest things! There's so much tied up in it, objective and subjective. It's a simple tool. It's an academic object. It's a well-defined spec. It's a living ambiguous blob. But it's also one of the biggest pieces of one's culture. There's a reason the French are so possessive of their language where it lives in cultural exclaves. There's a reason the Irish have laws to keep their native language alive.

[sillyfluke]

You're writing in a forum whose members are known to be notoriously pedantic. You're in good company!

[thissitesuckss]

I can see at least two grammatical errors in your first two sentences. Imagine being a grammar pedant and missing a comma before the conjunction linking two independent clauses.