Difference between How and Why

January 2022 · 4 minute read
Key difference: ‘How’ and ‘Why’ are two questions, which can be used for various purposes in the English language. The main difference between the two is that, how is used to know the manner in which something has happened, whereas why is asked to find out the reason behind it.

A question is generally asked to know about something, to understand something, to seek something, to get an answer, etc. ‘How’ and ‘Why’ are two such questions, which can be used for various purposes in the English language. However, they differ in the manner that they are used and what type of answers they are seeking.

The main difference between the two is that, how is used to know the manner in which something has happened, whereas why is asked to find out the reason behind it. For example: ‘How did you get here?’ I took the bus. ‘Why did you come here?’ Because I wanted to see you.

Dictionary.com defines ‘how’ as:

As seen from the long list, ‘how’ is a word that has many different meanings. It can be used in various manners and asked to get a variety of information. It is generally used to ask the manner in which something has happened, to the extent something has happened or the condition of something.

Examples:

‘Why,’ on the other hand, is used to inquire about something, or to ask for an explanation about a situation. It is mainly used to seek the reason, cause, or purpose for something. It is more of an authoritative question. It demands an answer, as to ‘why did this happen?’ or ‘why did you or didn’t you do this.’ For example: Why is she at the party? (I want to know the reason.)

As ‘why’ is a standard form of a question, it is used in a standard question form, which means that the subject and verb are inverted. In a question format, the subject follows the verb, such as ‘Why did you say that?’ as opposed to a regular sentence format which is subject verb object, e.g. ‘You did say that.’ This is also the case for how but only when it is being used as a question. In a sentence, the format would still the traditional ‘subject – verb – object’.

Dictionary.com defines ‘why’ as:

Examples:

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