Be careful, guys!
When somebody asks you:
Q: How do you find
this restaurant?
How will you answer?
A. My
friend recommended it to me.
B. I
found it on the Internet.
C. I
think it’s great.
...............
If you answered Letter “C,” you
are correct ;-)
But if you answered Letter “A” or
“B,” then you're one of the many learners who have the wrong idea of this
expression.
As a matter of fact, “How do you
find?” means “What do you think?” or “What’s your opinion?”
That’s why if somebody asks you
this question:
Q: How do you find the
movie (so far)?
You should answer by sharing your
opinion on it.
The original, complete answer to
this question is:
A: I find it exciting.
Notice that the pattern used is:
Subject + find + something/
someone + Adjective
Please don’t be surprised and don’t get confused. The Adjective at the end of the sentence will describe the word
(something or someone) before it.
Like this:
I
find him attractive.
I
find sunflowers very beautiful.
But if you wish, you don’t really
need to follow the original pattern. As long as you're able to express what
you think or feel (your opinion), that’s also a natural answer.
For example,
A: I like it.
A: She’s great/
wonderful/ fantastic.
A:
I think it’s too big.
A: This book sucks*.
*sucks = to be terrible
Again, please remember that "How do you find?" means "What do you think?"
Your friend might ask you this
question on many other topics: food, fashion, a person, a country you’ve been
visiting, etc.
So you need to practice a lot.
How Do You Find…? vs. How Did You Find…?
The problem and confusion happens
because there are actually two meanings. Sometimes this meaning is also
possible:
Q: How did you find
my house?
A: I asked somebody how
to get here.
So, now we are talking about the
way or method to locate. The physical meaning.
If you don’t wanna get confused,
you can check the tense of the question, whether it is Past tense or Present tense.
This rule is usually (but not always)
true:
How do you find…? = your
opinion
How
did you find…? = way to locate
WARNING: The Past question “How did you find…?”
is sometimes used to talk about the way to physically locate, and sometimes
about opinion.
Finally, the
best way is to try to feel the situation that the speaker is talking about. You
have to realize what the speaker really wants to hear -- whether it's your opinion or the way that you
were able to locate.
If the speaker
asks you:
Q:
How do you find my new hairstyle?
Of course it is
strange to answer:
A: I
find it on your head. X
And if you just
came back from a trip to Hawaii, your friend will ask you:
Q:
How did you find Hawaii?
It’s wrong to
answer:
A: I
found it on a map. X
You should say your opinion in both these situations.
Got it?
;-)
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