Tell me who is the winner

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Lcwang

#571886 Tue, 30 Sep 08 02:46 PM

In a indirect question, we have verb follow the subject of the noun clause. Such as: I don't know who she is. But quite often we see sentence like:

Can anyone tell me who is the winner?

Is that a mistake, or is it also acceptable?

Please advise. Thanks a lot.

Lcwang

Joined on Mon, Aug 29 2005

Junior Member (69)

Nouns, Verbs, Clauses, Direct Questions, Indirect Questions

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Mister Micawber

#571893 Tue, 30 Sep 08 03:03 PM

.
I suppose that it is not really a 'mistake' any more, since it is in such common use. In careful writing though, I would avoid it.
.

Mister Micawber

Joined on Wed, Aug 4 2004

Yokohama

Veteran Member (22,710)

'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master-- that's all.'

CalifJim

#572001 Tue, 30 Sep 08 09:09 PM

Lcwang
quite often we see sentence like:

Can anyone tell me who is the winner?

Is that a mistake, or is it also acceptable?

It's called semi-indirect speech, and it's less acceptable than indirect speech in my opinion.

I would stick with Can anyone tell me who the winner is?

CalifJim

Joined on Mon, Aug 2 2004

California

Veteran Member (17,794)

"There are no facts, only interpretations" - Nietzsche

Direct Speech, Indirect Speech

Lcwang

#572050 Wed, 01 Oct 08 03:02 AM

Thank you very much, Mister Micawber and cj. But is it also alright to say:

I don't know who is she.

Since we can say: I don't know who is to blame. I think it should be OK to say: I don't know who is she., taking who as the subject of the noun clause. In the sentence I don't know who she is, who is the subject complement of the clause.

Lcwang