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In a sentence comparing two related ideas, it strikes me as strange to say ____________________, like how ____________________.

For example,

The car was painted when it was old, like how the house was painted when it was old.

Is it just a matter of preference to use "just as" instead?

The car was painted when it was old, just as the house was painted when it was old.

The latter sounds more correct/natural to me, but is there a grammatical issue involved? Are both forms acceptable?

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  • There might be instances when like how worked and this isn't one of them. By contrast just as works here and should also work in place of like how anywhere. It’s almost true that both mean in the same way that but almost doesn’t mean always. Further, like how is just plain ugly.
    – Robbie Goodwin
    Commented Aug 4, 2017 at 21:22
  • Yes, I feel the same way. I was doing some editing, and wanted to justify replacing the author's use of like how with just as with a better reason than simply a different writing style. I haven't found a case of like how that I liked, though!
    – rayvd
    Commented Aug 9, 2017 at 12:23

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I would think that it is more natural to express similarity using a Germanic word which meant 'similar' for ever than to do it using a Latin borrowing which originally had to do with law.

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  • Really, 250904? Could you clarify that?
    – Robbie Goodwin
    Commented Aug 4, 2017 at 20:43

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