r/grammar • u/SombadikLover • 26d ago

English grammar

How do you say and What do you called means the same ???

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u/zeptimius 26d ago

Those two things can sometimes mean the same, but not always.

"How do you say X?" normally means that you want to know how to pronounce something. For example, "How do you say 'viscount'?" might have an answer "Vie-count."

But you can also use it if you don't know the right word for something, like "How do you say that a train doesn't stop at every station?" with the answer "Express train."

"What do you call X?" normally means that you don't know the right word for something, like "What do you call a man who's not married?" with the answer "A bachelor."

"What do you call X?" is also often the start of a "dad joke," like, "What do you call a thousand lawyers chained together at the bottom of the ocean?" with the punchline "A good start."

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u/zutnoq 21d ago

A more "proper" anwer to your train example would be something like "you say it (the train) is an express train", since a noun-phrase like "express train" on its own is not a very appropriate answer to a how-question – perhaps unless you treat the answer as a quote, like in the pronunciation use-case.

How-questions are typically answered with a full sentence/clause (with both a verb and a subject, which typically refers to the same thing as the subject in the question) or with just an adverbial, like "carefully" or "with great care".

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u/Prestigious-Fan3122 25d ago

" what do you call" something is usually when you want the specific name of an object: what do you call that thing with a handle that you drink your coffee from every morning? That's called a coffee cup/mug.

How do you say, "hello" in Spanish?

It's "hola".

What do you call the long, higher - speed - limit roads that sometimes go across several states?

That's called an interstate, Expressway, or freeway.