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Comment on How to explain the KGB's success identifying CIA agents in the field (2015)

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How to explain the....

Is grammatically correct in American English? Sounds weird.

In UK, Aus, you'd ask "How do you explain the ..."

I think there is a semantic difference.

To me, "How to explain the..." is a statement of fact. "I'm going to tell you how to explain...". The "I'm going to tell you" is unwieldy for the title of an article, so it's omitted.

"How do you explain the..." is a question. Saying "I'm going to tell you how do you explain the..." sounds ungrammatical.

Yes. The problem is that the article title has a question mark after a statement.

Both sound correct to this native British speaker

I don't know if its right, I always used it, but googling for "how to explain the", you will find occurrences in many places, including:

https://medium.com/@aaronDfrank/how-to-explain-the-metaverse...

https://www.hiig.de/en/explaining-ai-explain-the-unexplainab...

Or even books like "How to Explain the Trinity"

Yes, it’s pretty common. “How do you…” sounds like a question.

The title of the linked article has a question mark, while the HN title does not.

This is pretty stanard KGB English typical for Russian native speakers. So it is not uncommon in KGB/FSB promotional materials.

Yep that’s normal

"How to explain" is a common phrasing in Australia though?

"How dya explain" is very common, not sure I've ever heard a genuine "to".

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