How: Gaano and Paano
"How" also translates into two types of Filipino question words. These are "paano" and "gaano."
Paano
"Paano" is used when asking "how," as in what way something is done. ( How do you get to the mall? )
Gaano
"Gaano" is used when asking "how," and expects a response explaining the degree or quality of something. ( How large? How small? How sweet?, etc. )
Examples:
How will you open this?
? 
How did you know?
?
How will you go there?
?
How will you cook this?
?
How big is Asia?
ang Asya?
How deep is the sea?
ang ?
How delicious is the food?
ang ?
How strong is the typhoon?
ang ?
Some people may pronounce these question words by cutting these short to two syllables. In casual conversations, you would often hear people pronounce "paano" as "pa-no." Same goes for "gaano" as others would pronounce it as "ga-no."
This is a casual / slang pronunciation only, and these question words have 3 syllables and are correctly pronounced as "pa-a-no" and "ga-a-no".
