While talking to myself the other day, I noticed something odd. We have the five W words and the H: What When Where Who Why How I’ve heard three of these words said with “some” at the start: Somewhat Somewhere Somehow But I’ve never heard “somewhen”, “somewho” or “somewhy”. If when, why, and who, are … Read more
A. “John gave the slogan”. Make it an interrogative sentence with WH-word. Which one is correct? Who did give the slogan? Who gave the slogan? B. “Grandfather came to meet John”. Make it an interrogative sentence with WH-word. Which one is correct? Who came to meet John? Who did come to meet John? Answer Who … Read more
Generally the verb following who agrees with the subject or object that precedes the who. This makes sense and is expected. When the subject or object that the who refers to is singular, the verb is singular; when the subject or object is plural the verb is plural Such does not seem to be the … Read more
I’m taking an intro Spanish class and we learned the phrase “qué es ella de ti” to ask how someone is related to someone else. “Qué” is the equivalent of “what”. I was confused about why you wouldn’t use the equivalent of “who”… I considered what would be appropriate in English but I’m still confused. … Read more
In the sentence below, which version is correct: John pretty much knows who’s slept with who within certain circles in Manhattan. John pretty much knows who’s slept with whom within certain circles in Manhattan. Option 2 seems grammatically correct to me, but it also sounds stilted and very formal. If I were writing a novel … Read more
EXAMPLE: James is the man who/whom we know is who won it. I’ve been trying to work this out, but for the life of me, I can’t work out in such a scenario as shown above if the restrictive relative pronoun is to be an object pronoun or a subject pronoun. That’s because I can’t … Read more
Is a gang (or a musical group) considered like a person or an object? I.e. should I ask: Who is the rival gang of the Jets? Or should it be: What is the rival gang of the Jets? What is the grammatically correct form? Answer After some initial confusion and editorial intervention, it appears that … Read more
Are these sentences grammatically correct? They are translated from Thai song lyrics. Whose sunshine do you belong to? Who is your sunflower? Answer Based on the literal translation from Thai that you provided in comments, and on the normal interaction between sunshine and sunflowers, the sentence is grammatically correct but fails to convey the intention. … Read more
My question is about using ‘who’ in a sentence. Compare, …particularly children who are vulnerable… vs. …particularly children in Germany who are vulnerable.. Is the second sentence grammatically correct, even though ‘who’ is not directly placed next to the subject? Answer Yes, it is. “Children in Germany” is a noun phrase with children as the … Read more
For the statement: “Obama is the president of the United States.” Which of these questions is considered the most correct? Who is Obama? What is Obama? Basically, my question revolves around whether the choice for ‘who’ or ‘what’ depends on ‘Obama’ or ‘the president of the United States’. Answer In journalism, the common questions to … Read more
