Search results for 'tag:Direct questions tag:English grammar' matching tags 'Direct questions' and 'English grammar'

Re: ..why do I have vs ..why I have

EagerSeeker — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 16:43:25 GMT

Tanit

Hi,

As Goodman says, only the first one is correct,
From your post and your examples, I understand you've got Swann's book, right?
So, may I suggest another approach to clear your doubt?
That's an indirect question.
If you've got the same edition as me (the 3rd), have a look at section 276, "Indirect speech: questions and answers":

In reported questions the subject normally comes before the verb in standard English, and auxiliary do is not used.
- DIRECT: Where's Alice?
- INDIRECT: I asked where Alice was. (NOT ... ~~where was Alice~~.)
...
- DIRECT: What do I need?
- INDIRECT: She asked what she needed. (NOT ... ~~what did she need~~.)
...

If we try and use the same approach:

- DIRECT: Why do I have two cars?
- INDIRECT: You may wonder why I have two cars. (NOT ... ~~why do I have two cars~~.)

Yes, you are absolutely right! It is indeed indirect speech (I realized it later after reading more) and then we don't use auxiliary "do" in indirect questions.
But I found this to be a tricky one. Yes, I have Swan's book but he doesn't mention that we can use auxiliary do in indirect speech when the sentence
is negative.

I found this from my Finnish-English grammar book: "Auxiliary do is not used in indirect questions except in negative sentences".
Example: "Philip asked why children didn't read anymore."

So on the basis of what has been said so far I would find these examples correct:

"You may wonder why I have two cars."
"You may wonder why I don't have two cars." (negative sentence)
"You may wonder why I do have two cars." (emphatic sentence)

That emphasis is a nice suggestion from you guys!

Re: Rheumatic

Rotter — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 10:18:35 GMT

Thanks Marius
Certain things you taught me are engraved in my memory. You are very good at English grammar.

I have two more questions.

1) It is correct to say he/she is an asthmatic.

2)If a person is suffering from rheumaitsm, is it correct to say he/she is rheumatic?
Is it incorrect to say he/she is a asthmatic?

I have put a question mark at the end of the second sentence.
Should it be a question mark or fullstop?
The second sentence is not a direct question.

Re: Relative Clauses and Indirect Questions

Cool Breeze — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 10:19:32 GMT

Clive wrote:
The bottom line, of course, is that any of these systems is OK as long as it provides a tool that someone finds useful in learning to speak good English.

Would you call this a relative clause? I don't know where the pen is. What would you say it relates to?

When I asked this, I thought you might reply that it relates to the term or idea of 'a location'. You surprised me by answering in my grammar the clause in bold is an indirect question, not a relative clause. I don't see it as any kind of question at all. Would you also see I know where the pen is as an indirect question? If not, then what would you call it and what would it relate to?

I learned a grammar that includes categorizing clauses as noun clauses, adverbial clauses and adjectival clauses. That seems helpful to me, because it allows me to say things like this. In the sentence Mary likes cake, you can replace 'cake' by another noun, by a gerund or by a noun clause. In other words, you can use a noun-equivalent as the object. If I just talk about relative clauses, I can't say this so simply, because some kinds of relative clauses can fit as objects and others can't. eg I can't say Mary likes which is chocolate-flavoured. So, I assume that there is some way to differentiate between types of relative clauses in that style of grammar?

Hi Clive

I trust you have returned home with a refreshed mind and full of eagerness to get back to "work" on EnglishForums. I agree with you 110 percent: grammar and grammatical terminology and definitions are just a tool, and if a tool works for a person, the tool is good enough for him. I am actually not particularly interested in academic grammatical nuances. I'm very pragmatic in my attitude to grammar.

With regard to I don't know where the pen is: yes, of course where indicates a location, but that is self-evident to me and I wasn't taught to analyze language using such terms. And indeed, I was taught to consider where the pen is an indirect question even in a sentence like I know where the pen is. Of course no one is asking anything in the sentence; the term "indirect question" is just grammatical and stems from the word order. The point for me (ages ago) was to learn not to say I know where is the pen, and thus I arrived at the correct word order even though the term "indirect question" made me wonder about the logic of grammar in those early days.

I'm sure there are other terms that describe the clause with better logic but I don't want to adopt new terms for it. That might cause linguistic confusion in my head because everything relates to everything in language - or languages - and English grammar isn't the only grammar I deal with. At the moment, I think, I have everything sufficiently correctly pigeonholed in the area of my brain reserved for grammar.

I think I'll get a headache if I dig deeper into noun clauses, adverbial clauses and whatever you mention in your post because I am not used to these terms at all. I'm sure they are helpful and good but I have never used them.

I sometimes mention grammarians by name in my posts as I realize that I occasionally use terms which may be unfamiliar to some readers. This is just to stop people thinking I have made up these terms myself.

Cheers
CB

Re: Relative Clauses and Indirect Questions

Cool Breeze — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 14:41:56 GMT

Clive wrote:
Would you call this a relative clause? I don't know where the pen is. What would you say it relates to?

Hi Clive

I learned my grammatical terminology as a schoolboy and as far as I can remember most of the terms I learned were applicable to all the languages I studied. There were/are exceptions, of course. There is no gerund in Finnish and Swedish, for example. Maybe the writers of grammar books deliberately wanted to make grammar easier for us that way.

As I read EnglishForums I frequently see grammatical terms I have never seen anywhere, and I don't have a clue as to what they really mean even though I think I know English grammar reasonably well. I am not saying my terms are better or more correct than the ones I don't know and use. Differences in terminology may result in misunderstandings, though. I suppose there's nothing we can do about that.

As for your sentence, in my grammar the clause in bold is an indirect question, not a relative clause. Where isn't a relative pronoun in my English, what is. By the way, the Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary agrees with me on defining what as a relative pronoun in some contexts:

"8. (used relatively to indicate that which): I will send what was promised."

Cheers
CB

Re: Relative Clauses and Indirect Questions

Cool Breeze — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 08:48:22 GMT

Clive wrote:
I don't see any of these as relative clauses. They are noun clauses.

eg noun clause I read what he wrote.
eg relative clause I read the letter which he wrote. Here, which he wrote is relative (ie relates to) the noun 'letter'.

I don't see any indirect questions, either.

Hi Clive

This is an interesting thread. All maner of terms are used to describe clauses - and I am not saying your terms are wrong. However, what is very commonly considered a relative pronoun which includes the antecedent. The following quotation is from Otto Jespersen's Essentials of English Grammar:

"33.6 Though the relative and interrogative pronouns and adverbs beginning with wh are identical in form, it is possible in most cases to tell whether a clause is relative or interrogative. What is relative in 'I insist on paying what it has cost,' but interrogative in 'I insist on knowing what it has cost.'"

Jespersen doesn't use the term "noun clause" at all. Of course that doesn't mean "noun clause" is an incorrect term, it just proves there are many ways to describe language. In fact, I don't think I have ever read a grammar book that uses the term "noun clause."

To me, all of the original poster's what-clauses are relative clauses. No. 5 isn't a sentence, though, as it has no main clause; in other words, the part preceding what has no subject and finite verb.

Cheers
CB

Re: DIRECT QUESTION (USAGE)

rishonly — Thu, 03 Nov 2005 07:15:24 GMT

Hi Paco2004,

First of all, I like your new appearance. Does your picture change based on the forthcoming festival:? Being a very basic English learner, I myself ask several silly basic questions in order to understand different rules. I still feel that I have learned just one percent of English grammar and yet to learn the 99 percent of the remaining rules. My ultimate goal is to become an excellent English teacher -- like Paco2004, CalifJim,Clive,MrP,goldmound,nona the brit, and Mr.Pedantic--in few years from now. Until then, please don't be surprised by my very basic questions.

Re: When we use noun + verb and verb + noun

CalifJim — Wed, 01 Jun 2005 03:24:44 GMT

Hi, Latin,

No, it is not wrong to say "What is the homework about?"
Any time you want to know what the homework is about is the context!

I suppose the question that is used more often for this is, "What do you have to do for homework?"

In a direct question, subject and verb are inverted, and the question word is placed at the beginning of the clause.

You are a very important person.
You are who.
Invert subject and verb: "you are (who)" becomes "are you (who)".
Place the question word at the beginning: "are you who" becomes "Who are you?"

-- Who are you?
-- I am a very important person.

In an indirect question, subject and verb are not inverted, but the question word is still placed at the beginning of the clause.

I don't know - you are who.
[Don't invert subject and verb.]
Place the question word at the beginning: I don't know who you are.
_______

Note that if the question word is the subject, it has to be placed at the beginning of the clause, so inversion of subject and verb cannot be done in such cases (direct questions).

What bothers you most about English grammar? (Not, "Bothers what you most ..."!!!)
It's hard for me to know what bothers you most about English grammar.

CJ