How to...?

[shane]

Since I arrived in China, I've heard many students begin a question using 'How to', for example:

'How to spell this word?'
'How to write...?'

It always seemed a strange way of beginning a sentence to me, as I don't remember hearing it when in the UK. I always heard:

'How do you spell this word?'
'How do you write...?'

Am I going crazy? Is beginning a question with 'How to' ungrammatical?

Sorry for asking what seems such a simple question!

 

[RonBee]

It's not idiomatic English. I would also say that "How to spell this word?" is ungrammatical. It's certainly not a sentence.

 

[shane]

It's not idiomatic English. I would also say that "How to spell this word?" is ungrammatical. It's certainly not a sentence.

Cheers RonBee, I'm glad I'm not going mad!

 

[Tdol]

I've always thought 'How can I spell...' a touch strange. ;-)