1. What is his personality?

Question

2. What is his personality like?

(Are both the same? Which one is popular?)

3. There used to be a river there.
4. There would be a river.
5. There was a river, but not now.

(Does #3 mean #5? What about #4? Is #4 grammatical?)

Answer 1

We usually use 2.

4. is not used, but 3 and 5 are alright.