[General] How to tell fake from real

[Silverobama]

Hi,

My friend Ed is going back to the US. He told me he will sell jade stones when he comes back to China. I asked him a question:

How to tell fake from real? (There are many fake jade stones here. Only experts know which is real or fake.)

Please tell me if the sentence (question) is natural.

 

[Raymott]

No, it's not a sentence in proper English. Most 'sentences' starting with "How to ..." are wrong. They don't have a main verb. But just as important, it's not the way we speak.
Haven't you heard this here before?

 

[Tarheel]

Silver, try this.

There are a lot of fakes out there. How can I tell a fake one from a real one?

 

[tedmc]

How do we tell fake from genuine jade?

Silver's sentence was like a translation from Chinese where a subject is not required. It could be used for a title of a book but not a sentence.

 

[Silverobama]

No, it's not a sentence in proper English. Most 'sentences' starting with "How to ..." are wrong. They don't have a main verb. But just as important, it's not the way we speak.
Haven't you heard this here before?

Hmm, I have heard of it, but I thought it worked. Thank you so much.

Besides Tarheel's suggestion, am I have your version? How can I ask the question?

 

[emsr2d2]

Besides Tarheel's suggestion, am I have your version?

Are you sure that's the word you meant to use?

 

[Tarheel]

Hmm, I have heard of it, but I thought it worked. Thank you so much.

Besides Tarheel's suggestion, can I have your version? How can I ask the question?

I'm not sure what you mean by I have heard of it, but I thought it worked.

:-?

 

[Tarheel]

Silver, have you read post #4? (There's another good suggestion.)

 

[Raymott]

How to tell fake from real? X
"How do you tell fake jade from real jade?"
"How can you tell ..."
"How does one tell ..."
"How is real jade identified?; How do you tell the difference between real and fake jade?"
"How can fake jade be differentiated from real jade?"
"How would you [a buyer; a customer] detect fake jade?"
"What are the hallmarks of real jade?; How do you know real jade from fake?"
"What are the properties of real jade that distinguish it from fakes?"

There are probably hundreds of ways of using a proper sentence to ask this.

 

[Silverobama]

Are you sure that's the word you meant to use?

I should have said "May I" and I typed so fast. Sorry.

 

[Silverobama]

I'm not sure what you mean by I have heard of it, but I thought it worked.

:-?

I've heard that "How to....." is wrong but in the past (before being told my nice people here), I thought this phrase structure worked. However, it didn't work at all.

 

[Tarheel]

OK. I think maybe people get that one confused with "How do you ...?" (See example sentences below.)

How do you do that?
How do you change a light bulb?
How do you save money?
How do you make your hair look like that?
How do you get to Mars?
How do you like your coffee?
How do you like my hair?
How do you get there from here?