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Also, "How it works?". Are we fighting a losing battle in grammar? So often I see variations of this rather than "How does it work?"
by emmelaich 2y ago
Also, "How it works?". Are we fighting a losing battle in grammar?
So often I see variations of this rather than "How does it work?"
- stvltvs 2y agoA matter of taste, both are fine grammatically. The verb "to do" isn't obligatory to form the present tense.
- ramon156 2y agoIt was fine if the question mark wasn't there
- stavros 2y ago"It would be fine if the question mark weren't there."
- d1sxeyes 2y agoThe subjunctive in English is dead, let it die peacefully.
- stavros 2y agoIf I'm going to be prescriptive, I'm going all the way.
- d1sxeyes 2y agoThat’s exactly the kind of prescriptivism up with which I will not put.
- tczMUFlmoNk 2y agoYour comma is spliced.
- d1sxeyes 2y agoAnd I’m going to continue to blithely ignore outdated grammar rules.
- caseyohara 2y agoIt’s not a matter of taste. You need an auxiliary verb to form a question, in this case the auxiliary verb “does”, e.g. “How does it work?”
- miroljub 2y agoAs a non-native English speaker, why would I care?
- trimethylpurine 2y agoNon-native speakers care about grammar.
- miroljub 2y agoBut not about grammar Nazis ;)
- deprecative 2y agoWe should all care about communicating our ideas in a correct and concise way. This rise of anti-intellectualism must end or we're all dead.
- hmcq6 2y agoIf it is equally understandable to most people and uses fewer words that would make it technically the most concise way to express the idea. Defeating Anti-Intellectualism doesn't mean being antagonistic to non-native speakers. Intellectual != Asshole Edit: Communicating in proper english is great till you're choking and you put your hands around your neck and pray the people around you understand your "sign language" so you don't die
- Maken 2y agoBecause are hard languages to understand grammars without.
- sccomps 2y agothat order of words makes perfect sense when literally translated into my native language.
- cloud-oak 2y agoI thought it was only me! This "inverse question phrasing" is something I see popping up more and more in forums and such, especially phrases starting with "How it <verb>?" or "Why it <verb>?".
- glorpsicle 2y agoI often see this with non-native English speakers, for better or worse, when looking at other comments from folks who write like that. With that in mind, issues like these bother me less.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- rrrrrrrrrrrryan 2y agoSurely, most of the usage is from non-native English speakers. Auxiliary verbs (like "does") are not required to form questions in Russian, Spanish, Chinese, and probably many other languages.
- stavros 2y agoI think that's just that English isn't the author's native language.
- quectophoton 2y agoFor example, a direct translation from Spanish to English would result in that: * "Cómo funciona" -> "How it works", as in "tell me how it works". * "¿Cómo funciona?" -> "How does it work?". The auxiliary "do/does" really looks like an extra unnecessary word, but omitting it sounds wrong to a native speaker or anyone already more used to English. Part of the confusion could be because sentences like "but she does write" and "but she writes" mean basically the same thing (they imply different emphasis, but you know what I mean). So if someone incorrectly does pattern-matching based on those examples, I can see them thinking that "how does it work?" and "how it works?" mean the same thing. After all, the "-s" suffix kinda looks like an abbreviation of "does", the same way the "-'re" suffix is an abbreviation of "are" ("writes" vs "does write", "they're" vs "they are").
- vidarh 2y agoI feel it's a meek way of saying "how it works". Instead of saying "Click here and I'll tell you how it works", you're saying "did you have a question about how it works? If so, click here and I'll tell you". I'd argue it's still valid English, but it feels uncertain and weak, like you're not quite sure that's the right question to answer.
- latexr 2y agoCould’ve done exactly that and be grammatically correct by simply removing the question mark.
- vidarh 2y agoMy point is that it was still grammatically correct with the question mark, but the meaning is subtly different.
- dylan604 2y agoHow it works - declarative statement. This is how it works How it works? - an unsure comment about it kind of works but unsure how/why is correct reason. i typically add additional ??? to help convey the unsure nature without using shrug emoji How does it work? - interrogatory of wanting the answer
- vidarh 2y ago> an unsure comment about it kind of works but unsure how/why is correct reason I'd never interpret it that it way. "It works(?)" or "It works?!?" I'd interpret that way, but "How it works?" to me is firmly questioning the statement itself, not how it works.
- dylan604 2y agoLeaving out the How totally changes it though. "It works?!?" means it's working but you don't know how/why nor really care. Kind of like everyone importing 3rd party libraries. It works, but don't care to know how. Just move that card to the done column. "How it works?!?" means there's an attempt at the explanation but it might not be the best explanation if even correct.
- peter-m80 2y ago[flagged]
- sccomps 2y agoDoes it really matter? While it may not adhere strictly to the rules of grammar, it's not so incorrect that it becomes confusing or changes the intended meaning. This is simply how language evolves over time.
- stetrain 2y agoI associate that variation specifically with non-native English speakers rather than a language evolution happening among native English speakers.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- Xelynega 2y agoBut you still understand it fine, no? Why does it matter how you feel about language evolving(especially bringing race into it)?
- deprecative 2y agoNon-native English speakers is my favorite race.
- stetrain 2y agoI didn't say how I feel about it or anything about race.
- estebarb 2y agoKids born in "native english" change the language too. For example, treat irregular verbs like regular ones. Languages evolve with time, regardless of non-native speakers using it.
- stetrain 2y agoAgreed, and I didn't say otherwise.
- bryanrasmussen 2y agoIf "Police police police police" is a grammatically correct English sentence, surely "how it works" is also.
- 8n4vidtmkvmk 2y agoPretty sure it's a valid sentence but not a question. Also, I can understand 3 police but I don't know how the 4th makes sense.
- sam_bristow 2y agoAdjective noun verb noun?
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- BobaFloutist 2y agoThis is a personal website highlighting a tech project from someone who's probably not a native speaker of the language. Holding them to a professional writing standard is a bit odd.
- timbit42 2y agoSeeing as 380 million English speakers are native and over 1 billion English speakers are not native, I think you are fighting a losing battle in grammar.
- mock-possum 2y agoProbably ESL
- efilife 2y agoEvery time i bring up someone confusing "it's" with "its" or "their" with 'they're" i get downvoted to oblivion and now suddenly everyone cares. Is "how it works" a greater offence than confusing words with different meanings?
- 8n4vidtmkvmk 2y agoYes. Those are homophones at least.
- efilife 2y agoTheir and they're are not
- 8n4vidtmkvmk 2y agoClose enough to get mixed up, even if you know they're different words with different meanings. I often swap 2 completely unrelated words when typing if they sound kind of similar in my head. Called "spoonerism" apparently.