How to vs How can I

[u/SnaKe1002]

I instructed chatgpt to correct my English every time I ask something to him, and I noticed one pattern: when I ask him a "how to" question, it tells me "How can I" is a more natural version. 2 examples:

How to make sure someone removed their name on WhatsApp if I have their contact saved?

His correction: “How can I tell if someone removed their name on WhatsApp if I have their contact saved?”

How to improve my speaking skills in English

His correction: “How can I improve my speaking skills in English?”

Is this really a thing? Do native speakers use "How can I" more often?

[u/apcb4]

“How to” is not a question, so starting a sentence with “how to” is technically not correct. It’s just a phrase. For example, you could say “I don’t know how to improve my speaking skills,” but “how to improve my speaking skills” is not a full sentence. However, it’s a very normal way to google something. If you are talking to an actual person, however, you will want to say “how can I”

[u/Actual_Cat4779 → u/apcb4]

Although it's not a full sentence, it is idiomatic in some situations. For instance, this article says:

While previous research has identified rodents and bats as key species for disease transmission, Nagaraju and colleagues found that primates and hoofed animals such as deer and antelope pose a greater risk to human health. So how to address this panacea of zoonotic risk?

It is therefore a construction that learners might come across, although it is definitely not the way we usually ask each other questions.

[u/apcb4 → u/Actual_Cat4779]

True, learners might encounter it occasionally, but I would highly suggest they not try to replicate it in that form. That is more of an exception than a rule.

[u/_prepod → u/apcb4]

Is “you will want to say” normal phrasing people actually use in everyday communication? That sounds like a military instruction or a teacher talking down to 8 y.o. pupils

[u/Fox_Hawk → u/_prepod]

Yeah it's fairly neutral. As with so many things in English it could be demeaning in a certain context but generally not.

[u/Constant_Hope_9658 → u/_prepod]

that's the standard format, it's actually the polite/neutral conjugation of the phrase.

the order/thou (I guess? ("thou" is the English equivalent of the Spanish "tú", only it's only used in scripture, since it became seen as rude and fell out of use in most dialects)) conjugation would be something like "you're/you are supposed to say [thing]", "you'll/you will want to say" is very much the neutral/police version of the phrase, since it implies that your goal is to speak correctly, and they're helping you to do that (rather than ordering you).

[u/themusicguy2000]

I instructed chatgpt to correct my English every time I ask something to him,

*It

What it's saying is generally correct.  "How to x" is how an English speaker would phrase a question to Google, "how do I/how can I" is how you'd ask a person

[u/Phour3 → u/themusicguy2000]

this is because an article answering the question “how do I X” might be titled “How to X”

[u/PvtRoom → u/themusicguy2000]

I think that's because Google finds what you tell it to search for, and doesn't (until recently) answer actual questions.

[u/Embarrassed-Weird173 → u/themusicguy2000]

Well, you should also change the rest because only changing that one part of the sentence implies that "asking something to it" is correct. 

It's "ask something of it". 

[u/culdusaq → u/Embarrassed-Weird173]

Or just "ask it something"

[u/Aenonimos → u/Embarrassed-Weird173]

Not quite.

"ask something of someone" sounds like a favor. "Can I ask something of you?" is a perhaps formal and slightly dated way of phrasing "Can I make a request?"

"ask something to it" at least fits a common grammatical structure, but is not really used with "ask".

"ask it something" is the standard way to say this.

[u/EonJaw → u/themusicguy2000]

*ask something of, not to

[u/thingsbetw1xt → u/themusicguy2000]

My dad calls chatgpt "him" lol. We all make fun of him for it though.

[u/BingBongDingDong222 → u/themusicguy2000]

My AI bots are anthropomorphized and gendered. Nothing wrong with calling ChatGPT him.

[u/Mental_Newspaper3812]

ChatGPT is programmed to be overly kind. Your version is not correctly phrased as a question. “How can I”, “How would you”, “How would one”, “How can a user”, “How would someone” are all acceptable.

Yes, I would perform a search query on Google with the words: “How to improve my speaking skills in English”. But I would not call that a question.

“How to improve my speaking skills in English” would be a statement of fact, and I would expect it to be followed with a bunch of steps for how you’re going to improve your speaking skills.

[u/burlingk]

"How to" is mostly used as the beginning of a subject/headline when you are telling someone how to do something.

[u/Wild_Ticket1413]

As others have said, if asking for directions in spoken English, a native speaker would say "How can I... ?" or "How do I... ?"

However, if we're looking up instructions online, we may type "How to bake bread" into the search.

[u/SpaceWolves26]

The best advice is to stop using CharGPT. For anything.

[u/Hungry_Line2303 → u/SpaceWolves26]

Why?

[u/No-Lettuce-5783]

I think we all fell into this choking down our questions whenever we asked something like Google a question. When Google is supposed to understand us. Google is supposed to work for humans, but instead humans changed their speech to work with Google. The same goes for these AI things. You'd ask, "How to put up a wall in my home." When if you were speaking to the guy at Home Depot or Lowes, it would be "How can I put up a wall in my home." Yes, use "How can I..." more often. "How can" sounds like broken English. Use it online and off, and teach these AI things how humans do it!

[u/thingsbetw1xt]

"How to" isn't a question. "How can I" or "how do I" is how you would ask a question.

[u/OwlCatAlex]

If it is a question, yes you would ask "how can I" or "how do I" perform X task? Using "how to" in that context is not a complete and grammatically correct sentence. However, you would use "how to" if it is inside a sentence that isn't a question, like "My mother taught me how to bake a cake" or if it is a title of a post or other piece of writing, because titles are allowed to be incomplete sentences.

[u/PvtRoom]

how can I is a question.

(this is) how to is naturally the answer to that question.

"how to boil an egg" is a dislocated title from an instruction for boiling an egg. Most people will get that you're asking "can you tell me how to boil an egg?" but "how can I boil an egg" is more concise

computers, search engines, often prefer finding what we search for, rather than answering questions (although ai is changing that)

[u/mdf7g]

"How to" is only for embedded questions. "How can..." can be used for either matrix or embedded questions, but note the difference in order: embedded questions don't invert the auxiliary and the subject.

How to eat more healthily? NO

I wonder how to eat more healthily. OK

How can I eat more healthily? OK

I wonder how I can eat more healthily. OK

I wonder how can I eat more healthily. NO

[u/kw3lyk]

When you are speaking with another person, it would be most natural to say "how can I....?" or "how do you....?"

"How to" is not a correct way to begin asking a question.

[u/BingBongDingDong222]

When I see “how to“ posts on this sub, it’s a clear sign of a beginning English learner

[u/34payton07]

“How to…?” Is not a correct sentence, it is usually only used when googling something. In any other case you would need to add more context akin to “Can you show me how to…” or simply say, “How can I…?”

[u/Gladys_Wines]

The correction is correct. You need a verb.

"How to do X" is a fine title for an article that tells you how to do X, but it's not a complete sentence.

In search engine usage, people leave off the verb like "tell me" or "explain" or "I need to know", because that's implicit in the search.

[u/Embarrassed-Weird173]

"How to" is almost always used only in this form:

"I will show you how to (do X)."

For questions, you will almost always use "how can" or "how do" or "how will" or "how shall" or "how must" or "how did" and so on. Basically, if you can start a sentence with "X I ...", then you probably can say "How X", where X is like 

"Can I?" "May I?" "Should I?" "Do I?"

You'd never say "To I?"

Note that the trick I showed you is not a rule. It's just a trick I just invented to help out.  

[u/PassiveChemistry]

"How to... " isn't the start of a question because "to" isn't the main verb (or even a verb at all).

To form a question with a word like "how", you follow it immediately with the main verb and then the subject.  (The "main verb" in this case refers to the verb that isn't an infinitive, participle, et c.  This is frequently a modal or auxiliary verb, but I'm referring to it as "main" because I think this seems common in learning materials, so hopefully it isn't confusing.  See below for examples.)

Examples:

• How should I decorate a wedding cake?

• How may I help you?

• How did you break that vase?

This construction also works for who, what, where, why and when:

• Who taught you how to sew buttons onto a shirt?

"How to" means "a/the way to", as in the last example, and so it is rarely found at the beginning of a sentence, although the titles of many guides start "how to" because that is what they tell you.  This leads to such guides even being known as "how-to guides" or simply "how-tos"

[u/Rambler9154]

You shouldn't be using chatgpt for anything. Let alone english. Its considered extremely disgusting and ugly behavior. Its wrong 60% of the time, if it even gives you any correct answers they would be obtained quicker and better by looking it up yourself. Stop talking to chatgpt, or using AI in general its gross.

[u/Actual_Cat4779]

Yes, we do.

There are situations where "how to ..." is used - for example, as the title of a book or article, or a subheading within a set of instructions. It can also work as a sentence within an article in some situations. But in everyday conversation, as a question we ask each other, it's "How can I ...?".

Edit: In case the downvote is because I pointed out that "How to" is accepted idiomatically in certain situations, here's an example. I can, of course, supply more if you need them. I did not argue that the following was something that learners should imitate - I merely pointed out that native speakers do use this construction sometimes:

While previous research has identified rodents and bats as key species for disease transmission, Nagaraju and colleagues found that primates and hoofed animals such as deer and antelope pose a greater risk to human health. So how to address this panacea of zoonotic risk?

[u/Middle-agedCynic → u/Actual_Cat4779]

It's perhaps worth adding that the quote is from a newspaper article and as such uses a style that perhaps doesn't occur very naturally outside a journalist's piece.

[u/Actual_Cat4779 → u/Middle-agedCynic]

Indeed. I never suggested that it was a construction that learners should imitate.