Ask The Way To London

Question

Could this sentence:

He asked the way to the London.

be wrong? Because according to this dictionary, "ask" means to tell somebody to give you something. Using this definition would suggest that my original sentence would translate as:

He told somebody to give him the way to the London.

which seems to be missing something. Would this modified original sentence be better?

He asked the information about the way to the London.

because it would translate to:

He told somebody to give him the information about the way to the London.

Answer 1

No. In this case, you are asking somebody to give you something; the something is directions to London.

In many cases, this usage of "ask" is followed by a clause beginning with "for":

He asked her for a pen made of a partridge feather.

In the case of certain things being asked for, including directions, the "for" may be omitted. Both:

He stopped to ask for directions to the Chuckle Hut.

and

He stopped to ask directions to the Chuckle Hut.

are correct; the first is more formal but the second is still understandable.

When using the expression "the way" to mean "directions," the "for" is always omitted,

He stopped to ask the way to the Chuckle Hut.

This is more common in British English but is understandable to American speakers as well.

Answer 2

No, 'he asked the way to London' is perfectly acceptable. Your dictionary also defines ask as:

to say or write something in the form of a question, in order to get information

There's nothing grammatically wrong with 'He asked about the way to London', but the common phrase is 'He asked the way'. It's just evolved like that, I guess.