More Talk on Understanding Zěnme Yàng

Up to this point, we have only formally learned zěnme to express "how", as in "how do you get to Starbucks?".  We are going to explore here, some more common colloquial usages that vary from the meaning we know. 

First, we can break the most common meanings of 怎么样 into 2 categories and use cases:

1. nǐ +time word+ zěnmeyàng？means “How are you？”

2. one clause/noun +zěnmeyàng？means “How about (a suggestion)?" or "What do you think about (a suggestion)?" 

1. Nǐ + time word + zěnmeyàng？

This phrase is super useful and very authentic to express greeting. It has the same function as “How are you doing？” We can ask this question with different time word according to how long we haven't met.  Since you already knew this phrase, never ask a Chinese person “nǐ hǎo ma？” for greeting.

Nǐ jīntiān zěnmeyàng？ - How are you today?
你今天怎么样？
 Nǐ zuìjìn zěnme yàng？ - How have you been recently?
你最近怎么样？

2. One clause/noun +zěnmeyàng？

This structure can be used for asking about others' opinions or proposing an idea. This phrase can also work with Nǐ juéde。This usage will roughly translate to "How about (a suggestion)?" or "What do you think about (a suggestion)?" 

A：Nǐ juéde zhètiáo kùzi zěnmeyàng？ - What do you think about the pants? 你觉得这条裤子怎么样？

B：Wǒ juéde háibùcuò. - I think (this dress) is good! 我觉得还不错！ B：Wǒ juéde háixíng. - I think (this dress) is not bad! 我觉得还行！ B：Wǒ juéde hái kěyǐ. - I think (this dress) is OK. 我觉得还可以。

A：Wǒmen míngtiān qù nàge kāfēidiàn hē kāfēi zěnmeyàng? - Let's go to that coffee shop to drink coffee tomorrow, what do you think? 我们明天去那个咖啡店喝咖啡怎么样？

B：Hǎo a！Nàge kāfēidiàn de kāfēi fēicháng hǎohē. - Great！The coffee at that coffee shop is very good. 好啊！那个咖啡店的咖啡非常好喝。