Good Evening friends!
Even the advanced users of English often make mistakes while asking or writing certain types of questions. You might have heard - perhaps used too - the sentenses as given below:
"I asked him where was he going", "Can you tell me what is the time?", "Do you know who is the American President?", "We don't know who are you" etc.
Although the sentences given above look impressive, and they do convey the meaning effectively, a native English speaker never uses them. They are likely to use the same sentences in the following way:
"I asked him where HE WAS going", "Can you tell me what THE TIME IS?", "Do you know who THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT IS?", "We don't know WHO YOU ARE" etc.
Explanation:
The sentence, "I asked him where HE WAS going" is a combination of two sentences:
i.e. (1). I asked him. (2). Where was he going?
But when we combine (embed) them, we get, "I asked him where he was going". That's why such a construction is called 'EMBEDDED SENTENCE'. While making an embedded sentence by combining a normal sentence and a question (as in "I asked him where he was going"), the positions of subject and the helping verb are swapped:
Examples:
Where was he going? (normal question)
Where he was going. (embedded question)
(as in "I didn't notice where he was going")
What is the time? (normal question)
What the time is. (embedded question)
(as in "Please ask her what the time is")
Who is the American President? (normal question)
Who the American President is. (embedded question)
(as in "Does he know who the American President is")
Who are you? (normal question)
Who you are. (embedded question)
(as in "We don't care who you are")
(Contd......)
Jacob (Nova English Campus)
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