Search results for 'tag:Direct questions tag:Word order' matching tags 'Direct questions' and 'Word order'

Re: when was the last time....

CalifJim — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 07:27:41 GMT

I'd just say,

I don't remember the last time I went to the movies.

The when was just confuses the issue.

But if the question is really about word order in an indirect question, then here's a shorter example.

Wrong: I don't remember when was it.

Right: I don't remember when it was.

Re: embedded question

Mister Micawber — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 05:44:14 GMT

.
It is not an embedded question for the reason that I gave you in your other post. The word order is that of a direct question.

Re: Question from non-native speaker that stumped

Yankee — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 15:57:03 GMT

Hi pjyrdo

Here are my comments:

1. The word order is not the most natural. The time aspect is more typical at the end: "I don't know what I should do for three hours."

2. 'In three hours' is frequently used to refer to a point in time that is three hours from now. (e.g. I'll see you in three hours.) Your friend should use 'for' instead of 'in' because 'for' is typically used to talk about duration of time. Using 'in' will easily lead to misinterpretation. (e.g. "I don't know what I should do three hours from now.")

3. "I don't know what I should do" is correct. That is an indirect question. However, indirect questions generally do not use interrogative word order. The word order should be the same as in an affirmative sentence. Your friend should be able to find this in any grammar book.

Re: indirect question

Cool Breeze — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 19:22:36 GMT

Hi NG

You are right. Indirect questions fall in three categories.

1. There is a word that can begin a clause but the word is not the subject.

What did he say? - Tell me what he said.

2. There isn't a word that can begin a clause. If or whether must be used.

Did he come in time? - Tell me if/whether he came in time .

3. A question word - in Scandinavia we call them interrogative pronouns - is the subject or a part of the subject.

What is wrong with this? - Tell me what is wrong with this.

Whose friend saw it? - Tell me whose friend saw it.

Because the interrogative word is the grammatical subject of the clause, there is no change in the word order.

Re: subject & object next to each other?

CalifJim — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 05:36:09 GMT

Can I say this rule - "Subject and Object can never come next to each other"

No, because the word order is different in an indirect question: I wonder whom you are going to marry and in a relative clause: She is the woman whom you are going to marry.

CJ

Re: Phrases?

Cool Breeze — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 16:36:37 GMT

Hi Anthon

Please capitalize I. Neither sentence is correct. Indirect questions should have the same word order as affirmative clauses:

I didn't know what I could do for him.
I didn't tell him what I saw.

The subject is before the finite verb. Easy. Always. No exceptions.

CB

Re: Tense problem.

Cool Breeze — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 09:17:02 GMT

Yankee wrote:

I agree with Goodman but would like to add that this word order would also be very common:

I was wondering what the difference between a planet and a star was / is.

Hi all

Strictly speaking, this is the only grammatically correct sentence but I accept all the others as well because they are so common.
I was wondering is the main clause and therefore what the difference between a planet and a star is is a subordinate clause, in this context commonly called an indirect question even though no one may be asking a question directly or indirectly. The point in clauses like this is: the finite verb comes after the subject and everything that goes with it.

It's easier to get the word order right if the subordinate clause is very short:
I was wondering what it is.
Not: I was wondering what is it.

Another example with or without do:
I was wondering what he said.
Not: I was wondering what did he say.

CB

Re: how do you ask this question?

CalifJim — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 18:22:41 GMT

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

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: what is the matter

CalifJim — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 23:08:27 GMT

You replied before I had a chance to edit what I had said. I think my revision explains it. If not, we can discuss it further.

I prefer "what's the subject" to "what the subject is", am I wrong?

Preferences are never wrong -- but unfortunately your preference does not agree with mine!

I suspect that what in "What is the matter?" is regarded by many speakers as the subject. For those speakers the word order what is the matter already signals indirect question form, the direct and indirect word order being the same.
For other speakers, that what is regarded as the complement, matter being the subject. For them what the matter is is the indirect question form.

CJ