Timeline for Should I put an auxiliary verb ('is') in this case?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
13 events
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| Apr 9, 2021 at 13:48 | comment | added | Virtuous Legend | @no, it doesn't look like that. The example you've shown talks about the difference between 'where is' and 'where Linda is', while I've asked about the difference between 'what' and 'what is '. Two different structures. Although some of ge comments suggest to use one of the structures that you brought in your link, I didn't mention this structure, so the questions aren't similar. | |
| Apr 9, 2021 at 12:46 | review | Close votes | |||
| Apr 11, 2021 at 4:00 | |||||
| Apr 9, 2021 at 12:23 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | Does this answer your question? "Do you know where's Linda?" vs "Do you know where Linda is?" | |
| Apr 9, 2021 at 12:21 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | If you include is as per your first example, strictly speaking you're "ungrammatically" embedding a question into your assertion - same as, for example, I don't know what is your name (which should more properly be phrased as I don't know what your name is. BUT (particularly when elements "A" and "B" are relatively long noun phrases) that little "copula" seems a bit forlorn when tacked onto the end of I've never understood what the difference between subject A and B is. | |
| Apr 9, 2021 at 11:47 | history | edited | stangdon | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
fix title
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| Apr 9, 2021 at 9:49 | history | edited | rjpond | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 1 character in body
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| Apr 9, 2021 at 8:34 | answer | added | rjpond | timeline score: 3 | |
| Apr 9, 2021 at 8:02 | comment | added | rjpond | In my experience the first sentence, although grammatical, is slightly unusual and perhaps slightly unidiomatic, at least in BrE. The second sentence is obviously wrong (although it would work fine if the word "what" were omitted entirely). I agree with Kate Bunting that "is" can go after the word "difference". It can also go right at the end, although this might work less well if "subject A and B" were a long phrase. | |
| Apr 9, 2021 at 7:52 | comment | added | Kate Bunting | Or "what the difference is..." | |
| Apr 9, 2021 at 7:05 | answer | added | BillJ | timeline score: 3 | |
| Apr 9, 2021 at 6:53 | comment | added | BillJ | No: Your first example is fine, but the second is ungrammatical without "is". Note that you can insert "is" at the end of the clause ("I've never understood what the difference between subject A and B is) and both examples would then be fine and interchangable. | |
| Apr 9, 2021 at 5:24 | answer | added | Seowjooheng Singapore | timeline score: 1 | |
| Apr 9, 2021 at 4:56 | history | asked | Virtuous Legend | CC BY-SA 4.0 |