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For the sake of using less characters in a title I often change a question like:

How do I learn to ride a bike?

to:

Learning to ride a bike?

I know these two constructs are not identical in meaning but the intention is to use one or other as a title summarizing a Stack Exchange question about a problem encountered when learning to ride a bike.

Are both grammatically correct i.e. can a question begin with a gerund?

PolyGeo
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  • Possible duplicate of Does appending a question mark to a declarative sentence result in a valid sentence? where Robusto gives the declarative question The shoe fits? and also Going to the mall? as examples of valid sentences (according to the definition he chooses). I'd class 'Going to the mall?' as a fragment, a conversationally deleted form of a declarative sentence (but I'd say totally acceptable in informal conversation). / Avoid in formal writing! – Edwin Ashworth Sep 20 '19 at 13:40
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    @EdwinAshworth do you see Stack Exchange questions as formal writing? I’m wondering whether the “question starting with a gerund” should be outlawed from Stack Exchange question titles on grammatical grounds? – PolyGeo Sep 20 '19 at 13:46
  • No, ELU looks at informal (though not very parochial slang) usages, dialect, even Old English. And if that question were outlawed, why wouldn't this be? It's the answers, not the wording of the questions, that necessarily address register. // Doesn't the answer in what I certainly consider to be a duplicate question adequately answer yours? // Quirk and Svartvik conducted a study on 'grammaticality' and decided that even in formal registers, some sentences were somewhere in between acceptable and unacceptable. – Edwin Ashworth Sep 20 '19 at 13:52
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    As a title, you can do more or less what you please, as long it makes sense of course. "Learning to ride a bike?" is fine as a compressed title or headline, to be understood as "Are you learning to ride a bike?" – BillJ Sep 20 '19 at 13:55
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    @EdwinAshworth I’m close to agreeing that it’s a duplicate. I’m hoping for an answer to this question or to find in a duplicate an an answer that says it is grammatically OK to title an article (and, by extension, a Stack Exchange question) with a construct like “Learning to ride a bike?”. – PolyGeo Sep 20 '19 at 14:01
  • What is about a compressed title like "Learning to ride a bike?" that you have doubts about? – BillJ Sep 20 '19 at 14:06
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    @BillJ I’ve been using it to cover things like “How do I learn to ride a bike?”, “How to learn to ride a bike?” and “How would you learn to ride a bike?” rather than “Are you learning to ride a bike?” – PolyGeo Sep 20 '19 at 14:12
  • Let's say that Quark says it's 96% acceptable in a title and Svertvik says it's only 16% grammatical in formal registers. What do you do next? Querk perhaps says it's only 74% grammatical in a title. Things are getting worse. And the real people did their studies decades ago; have acceptability levels changed? Who decides? // As BillJ says, a title doesn't have to conform very closely to the guidelines considered appropriate for more formal registers. No one would consider your title/s dodgy. – Edwin Ashworth Sep 20 '19 at 14:12
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    The rules for 'title' aren't as strict as for regular writing. – Keneni Sep 20 '19 at 14:30
  • @EdwinAshworth some GIS SE users do - see https://gis.meta.stackexchange.com/q/5089/115 – PolyGeo Sep 20 '19 at 14:36
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    You've skewed the question by changing the context. You contextualised: 'the intention is to use one or other as a title summarizing an article about learning to ride a bike' not 'I intend to use this on GIS SE where there are strict in-house rules' and not '... in Gestaponia where all English users are shot'. // Taking into account the sensible concerns expressed at the link you've now volunteered, we're now getting close to the possible dangers of conversational deletions (eg loss of clarity: an obviously violation of at least one Gricean maxim); this certainly covered here before. – Edwin Ashworth Sep 20 '19 at 16:28
  • Asking a question? is NOT a valid interrogative sentence. It has no subject and no finitie verb. And questions require inversion of the finite auxiliary or finite main verb. Such utterances are possible only under conversional deletion. *Know what I mean?* – tchrist Sep 20 '19 at 18:12
  • @EdwinAshworth Writing an answer is no more a declarative sentence than are Forgetting a finite verb and Neglecting the already forgotten verb’s even-more-forlorn subject are valid declarative sentences. They are not. Nor shall apppending a mere question mark somehow make of these an interrogative sentence, either. That being said, Eating in today? is certainly a valid question under the special rules governing conversational deletion, where the missing subject is the implied you or we, and the implied finite verb is some inflection of copular be under obligatory inversion. – tchrist Sep 20 '19 at 18:16
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    @tchrist It's a grey area; I cited the interpretation Robusto gives, labelling it as such. "Writing an answer?" may have as clearly recoverable a subject in some contexts as "Eating in today?" and if there is a set of rules stating that only first-person recoverable subjects are allowed, (1) it's arbitrary and (2) the echo question "Are you writing an answer, Jill?" ... "Writing an answer?" certainly licenses that as being one (note that context is necessary for exact retrieval of any subject). – Edwin Ashworth Sep 20 '19 at 18:39
  • @EdwinAshworth Not calling that a gerund now, are we though? :) – tchrist Sep 20 '19 at 18:40
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    @tchrist Calling a subset of ing-forms 'gerunds'? Not. Definitely. And wipe that silly grin off your fragment. – Edwin Ashworth Sep 20 '19 at 18:49

1 Answers1

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Yes, it can. The question "Learning to ride a bike?" is an abbreviated way of asking the question, "Are you learning to ride a bike?" An article using that question as a title would likely contain things learners should know, like helpful tips and/or safety warnings. However, if the article is a how-to guide for people who want to learn but haven't yet (i.e., would-be learners), you would more aptly forego the question mark and use "Learning to Ride a Bike" as your title.