1. What is his personality?
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?)
We usually use 2.
4. is not used, but 3 and 5 are alright.