"How dare you" vs "How do you dare"

I know that dare is a semi-modal verb. I just don't know when to use it like a modal auxiliary verb and when to use it like a normal verb. Given the following examples:

How dare you ...
How do you dare ...

Is it only up to the speaker as to which one to use? Or does it depend on the circumstances?


If you are issuing this statement as a warning or confrontation then the only acceptable formulation is

How dare you

For example: "How dare you go behind my back and talk to my boss without telling me."

How do you dare is asking a question- essentially How is it possible that you dare to ...

For example: "How do you dare do that? Aren't you afraid you'll burn your hand?"


Need and dare are the English semi-modal verbs, which means that need and dare can behave like a modal (no inflections, negative contractions needn't, dassn't, subject-auxiliary inversion, to-less infinitives) only in negative contexts.

The modalactivity of need and dare is a Negative Polarity Item, and operates only within the scope of a Negative Polarity Trigger. Since questions are NPI triggers, the modalactive form "How dare you ... ?" -- with subject-auxiliary inversion, no inflection (How dare she?, not *How dares she?), and infinitives without to (How dare you come here? not *How dare you to come here?) -- is licensed by its question form.

Isn't English syntax fun?

I explained about this peculiarity of dare in another post here, a while back.