How have the investors responded?

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

Which one is correct?

Option 1: How is the response to these funds?
Option 2: What has been the response to these funds?

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2

I’m afraid neither of these two sentences are very idiomatic. Can you please give us more context on what exactly you want to say?

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3

A particular fund house has introduced a slew of funds in the market and now, the management wants to know the performance of these funds. Simply put, investors’ response to these funds – whether they are investing in these funds or not. Hope it is clear now.

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4

How about this:
How have the investors responded to the launch of the new series of funds?

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5

Great. Well, my confusion was mainly about the use of ‘how’ or ‘what’.

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6

How have investors reacted to these particular funds?

What has been the reaction from investors to these particular funds?

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7

Thank you.

Also I would like to we generally say-what is the response or how is the response

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8

In this case only what is/was the response works.

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9

Alan, I think the question contemplates a situation wherein a loan has been floated (soliciting investment of funds), perhaps by the government or by a government-approved agency, to meet their deficit or augment their capital. Investors would respond depending upon the rate of interest and the term of the loan. If the rate is low and the period is long, there may not be adequate response as anticipated. It’s in this context that the questions 1: How is the response to these funds? 2: What has been the response to these funds? arise.

The subject question, in my view, is quite acceptable. However, of the two options given by the questioner, the second sounds the better.

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10

Gr8.

Sir, can you explain the reason behind it please? Also, if possible, please tell me the difference between the use of ‘how’ and ‘what’.

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11

What do you mean by ‘the reason behind it’? The reason for what?

As for the difference between between ‘what’ and ‘how’, please take a look at these sentences:

How is your wife? – Thanks, she is fine. And how is yours?

What is your wife like? – She is the best person I’ve ever met.

Please let me know if this makes sense.

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12

Sir,

I wanted to know the reason behind your previous suggestion, wherein you said

not “how is/was the response?”

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13

Because in this case ‘response’ is a noun which means only ‘what’ works:

What was the response to the funds? (what + noun)
How did the investors respond? (how + verb)

Please let me know if this makes sense.

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14

Ok,

Got it So, we can use ‘what’ when the object is noun (like response here) and ‘how’ when the object is verb (like respond)…right?

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15

Well, the term ‘object’ doesn’t quite apply here and the answer might be a bit more complex.

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16

Okay. Can you please simplify it? It will help me understand better where to use ‘What’ and where to use ‘How’.

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17

Also,

You have mentioned that

"Because in this case ‘response’ is a noun which means only ‘what’ works:

What was the response to the funds? (what + noun)
How did the investors respond? (how + verb)

Please let me know if this makes sense."

If this is so, then we say - “How is your holiday?” Here holiday is a noun and we are using ‘how’ instead of ‘what’. Sorry for the volley of questions, but I want to clear my doubts.

Thanks.

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18

To me, the question ‘how is your holiday?’ is the short version of ‘how is your holiday going?’ so the question ‘how’ refers to the verb ‘going’.

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19

[How have the investors responded?]

How is the response to these funds?

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