Learn English – How are you spelling, or how do you spell

politeness

I have just given my surname to someone on the telephone, and they asked me as do most people these days How are you spelling the name? It always sounds as if they think I change my name every day and they would like to know how I am spelling it today. In any case I wasn't spelling it, I was saying it!

Why is the time honoured How do you spell your name, please?, only rarely used? It seems to be a more logical way of asking, since the way I spell it today is the same way I have been spelling it for decades – and I suppose that's the same with most people. It is also the way my eighteenth-century ancestors spelled it.

Is it perhaps that the latter sounds too direct a question to ask someone and how are you spelling seems less brusque and more polite. Or is it just a daft affectation that has caught on?

Best Answer

I'm reluctant to make assumptions here but I think that form is quite common in Indian English -- are you dealing with outsourced call centres?

The only alternative in which it's not wrong is along the lines of "how are you spelling your name this week" -- an unlikely question.

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