I thought I couldn't start a question using how to

[tufguy]

Sorry for using "how to" but I thought that you had told me that we cannot start a question using "how to" that's why I used it as a part of a sentence, but I didn't know that I couldn't use it anywhere. Could you please tell me where I can use "how to" because I have seen many question starting with "how to(not on this forum)".

 

[bhaisahab]

As your question is not very clear, I don't know how to answer it.

 

[Rover_KE]

Also 'Please tell me how to ask a question.'

 

[Barb_D]

Headings, not questions, can start with "How to"

How to reset your password

How to change your address of record

How to add a user to a permission group

These would be followed by instructions on how to do these things.

 

[Roman55]

Here are some examples of proper questions starting with 'how'.

How can I do this?
How do you say that?
How would we write the other?

 

[Tdol]

I have seen many question starting with "how to(not on this forum)".

It is, as Barb says used in heading and titles, but they shouldn't have a question mark at the end:

How to reset a password :tick:
How to reset a password? :cross:

 

[GoesStation]

Non-native Anglophones often don't know how to form questions in English, so you'll see lots of incorrectly-formed questions on the Web. Questions written like How to write a question? are comprehensible even though they're mangled English. This forum discourages mangled English.

[EDIT] While I was writing the above, I received this message from a Yahoo group to which I belong: How to convert string to integer in edeveloper 9.4? I won't correct the author's English because I understand it and the group's focus is something other than using English. But I know immediately that English is a second language for its author.

 

[tufguy]

Now I am not going to use "how to" in my questions.

 

[Rover_KE]

You can if you say 'Please tell me how to write this correctly'.

 

[Raymott]

Info. for those following the thread. @tufguy - not so important if you don't understand this.

"How to" can begin a sentence if the string of words is actually a sentence, eg. "How to begin a sentence with "How to" is not easily understood." "How to bake a cake is something that I've never learnt." Note that the sentences have a finite verb. Non-sentences like "How to bake a cake?" do not have a finite verb.
On the other hand, I can't think of a question that begins with "How to".

 

[engee30]

It is, as Barb says used in heading and titles, but they shouldn't have a question mark at the end:

How to reset a password :tick:
How to reset a password? :cross:

Even here you could use either:
How to reset a password = This is how you reset a password. The author offers an explanation to the reader.
How to reset a password? = The author asks the reader a question, 'How do you reset a password?'

 

[jutfrank]

'How to' isn't a good way to start a question, is it? :-D

 

[engee30]

Maybe not, but people tend to use ellipsis in everyday conversations.

 

[Tarheel]

No, it isn't. (And that includes post 11.)

 

[jutfrank]

(Post #12 was a (not very funny) joke.)

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Sorry for using "how to," but I thought that you had told me that we cannot start a question using "how to​." That's why I used it as a part of a sentence, but I didn't know that I couldn't use it anywhere. Could you please tell me where I can use "how to​," because I have seen many question​s starting with "how to​."

Oh, come on! The people who post questions here do not have perfect English. That's why they come here!

"How to" can only start a sentence if it's part of a noun phrase:

- How to speak English well is the topic of almost all the questions posted here.

Otherwise, it's wrong.

 

[engee30]

It looks to me like another strange peculiarity of English grammar.

You can say something like this:
Why not ask her out? (general) or Why don't you ask her out? (specific)

You cannot say: How to reset a password? (general), but you can say: How [do you/shall I] reset a password?
Or you cannot say: What to do now? (general), but you can say: What [do I/you/we|shall I/we] do now?

In all of the cases above, it's a question word + infinitive construction. So what's the problem then? :-?

 

[Raymott]

Yes, you can say these types of things, and people sometimes do. It's probably normal in Hong Kong and Taiwanese English.
But I would never write them thinking they were sentences.
"Now, where to go for our holidays?"; "Who to talk to?"

The point is that very, very many of the students here i) think that this is proper English, and ii) want to learn standard, acceptable, written English, and iii) want to learn correct grammar. The fact that a native speaker would not ask a question this way should be enough evidence that anyone reading such a question will immediately recognise that you are non-native speaker, no matter how good your grammar is otherwise (not that there's anything wrong with that, but many learners have expressed a desire to speak/write like a native.)

 

[engee30]

Of course, I get your point, Raymott. Being a non-native speaker of English, I do realise I will be in the wrong most of the time, but I was merely wondering why you can't say things like that. I've been failing to find a source that could explain that to me.

 

[Raymott]

It's not that you can't. It's that we don't usually say it, and we certainly don't write it.
I think you'd be wasting your time if you looked for evidence for why we don't use certain ungrammatical phrases. You are correct that we use ellipses in many places. This is not one of them.