Learn English – Do “How is it that…?” and “How…?” mean the same thing

differencemeaningquestions

If I want to know and ask how to do something, for example, when I want to know how we can keep ourselves enthusiastic, can I ask like this?

How is it that we can keep ourselves enthusiastic?

But, the problem is this sentence sounds like I am asking why.

So,

  1. How can we keep ourselves enthusiastic?

  2. How is it that we can keep ourselves enthusiastic?

Don't these two sentences have the same meaning?

Best Answer

No, they do not mean the same thing.

1) means "What should we do to keep ourselves enthusiastic?"

2) means "How is it possible that we are able to keep ourselves enthusiastic?"

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