how do you ask this question?

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Pchuang

#386986 Mon, 02 Jul 07 01:10 PM

a. can you tell me when was the last time you saw him?

b. can you tell me when the last time you saw him was?

which one is correct?

Pchuang

Joined on Sat, Nov 5 2005

Full Member (198)

Kooyeen

#387059 Mon, 02 Jul 07 03:10 PM

Hi,
I think I would use the first one, but I'm not sure the second is wrong. Maybe both are ok, but I like the first one. Smile [:)]

Kooyeen

Joined on Thu, Dec 22 2005

Italy

Senior Member (4,046)

If you don't have a sense of humor already, it's about time you buy one.

Yoong Liat

#387164 Mon, 02 Jul 07 07:06 PM

Pchuang wrote:
a. can you tell me when was the last time you saw him?

b. can you tell me when the last time you saw him was?

which one is correct?

I would say "Can you tell me when you last saw him."

Yoong Liat

Joined on Mon, Sep 4 2006

Singapore

Veteran Member (6,085)

Yoong Liat

CalifJim

#387168 Mon, 02 Jul 07 07:22 PM

I think YL's suggestion is good. And don't neglect this possibility:

Can you tell me the last time you saw him?

As for the word order of an indirect question with heavy clauses, you can be flexible. You don't need to strand the verb way at the end if it sounds very awkward. Your case b is borderline. It's the correct word order for the indirect question, but some speakers would use a instead to place was closer to when.

CJ

CalifJim

Joined on Mon, Aug 2 2004

California

Veteran Member (17,566)

"There are no facts, only interpretations" - Nietzsche

Verbs, Clauses, Word order, Indirect questions, Direct questions

Kooyeen

#387218 Mon, 02 Jul 07 10:12 PM

Of course "Can you tell me when you last saw him?" is much better, but since the question was a little different...
I considered the two sentences this way:

1) Can you tell me when was the last time you saw him? - Yesterday, Monday, etc. was the last time I saw him.
2) Can you tell me when the last time you saw him was? - The last time I saw him was yesterday, Monday, etc.

"When" could be considered the subject. That's why I thought both could be ok. Having said that, I think the first is much better.
So I think this is different from "Can you tell me who that person over there is?", where "that person" is clearly the subject. Smile [:)]

Kooyeen

CalifJim

#387308 Tue, 03 Jul 07 05:15 AM

Equative structures are slippery.

Normally the subject is the entity to be identified, and the complement is the expression that identifies.

To my ear the last time you saw him is the entity to be identified, and an expression like Monday does the identifying. So to me the most natural order is:

The last time you saw him was Monday.

You have a good point, though. You might reason it out in the reverse direction. Pesky equatives!

CJ

CalifJim

Expressions

Udumbara

#387320 Tue, 03 Jul 07 05:50 AM

Yoong Liat wrote:

Pchuang wrote:
a. can you tell me when was the last time you saw him?

b. can you tell me when the last time you saw him was?

which one is correct?

I would say "Can you tell me when you last saw him."

Yeah, I agree with Yoong Liat perfectly there. But if we have to make a choice of the two, I would say Option A sounds more natural and Option B looks more grammatical.

Udumbara

Joined on Sat, Jun 30 2007

New Member (04)

Pchuang

#387423 Tue, 03 Jul 07 11:18 AM

I understand that grammatically, b. is the correct answer.
at the same time, a. sounds more natural.

Pchuang