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Error spotting : One who perpetually hesitates which of the two things he will do first will ultimately do neither

One who perpetually hesitates (A) which of the two things he will do first (B) will ultimately do neither. (C) no error .

Is this sentence grammatically correct ? Isn't the B part wrong? We don't use two will in single sentence , right ? So shouldn't the correct form be :

One who perpetually hesitates which of the two things he will do first will ultimately do neither.

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  • No, you're wrong. This is how I read the sentence: [ One who perpetually hesitates which of the two things he will do first ] will ultimately do neither., i.e., One [...] will ultimately do neither [of the two things]. I'd hesitate to put a comma after first, but it might aid the reader.
    – user3395
    Jun 1, 2017 at 14:41
  • Both "will" s are required because both do verbs are in the future tense. I would personally add in "when deciding", and I might remove the "the", but I'm not sure there are any grammatical errors in the sentence. One who perpetually hesitates when deciding which of two things he will do first will ultimately do neither.
    – SteveES
    Jun 1, 2017 at 15:02
  • @SteveES I believe B is grammatically incorrect because it is not native speech to hesitate between two things. Hesitate is sort of like zero in that hesitate is a null action and no matter how many possible decisions there are it always comes back simply null. One hesitates (period). 2x0 = 0 but in describing the answer to this equation you don't say zero which of two things you just say zero. I had many options but I hesitated (not I hesitated which of many options).
    – Brillig
    Jun 14, 2017 at 23:34
  • Or if you did nothing you don't say you did nothing which of five things you just did nothing (period).
    – Brillig
    Jun 14, 2017 at 23:43

2 Answers 2

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"One who perpetually hesitates (A) which of the two things he will do first (B) will ultimately do neither. (C) no error."

Whatever this is, it is not a sentence. With the A,B,C points it feels like it is a multiple-choice question, except that, of the three endings, only one (B) fits with the beginning.

One who perpetually hesitates will ultimately do neither.

I also wonder if the point of this exercise is to insert something at one of the points A, B or C to make a sentence? You could make a sentence by saying:

One who perpetually hesitates over which of the two things he will do first will ultimately do neither.

If this doesn't answer your question then perhaps you can add some context so it can be understood better.

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  • Note: I have edited the question to copy the OP's target sentence from the title to the question. I think that should clear things up.
    – chasly - supports Monica
    Mar 23, 2019 at 9:26
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Error spotting : One who perpetually hesitates which of the two things he will do first will ultimately do neither

One who perpetually hesitates (A) which of the two things he will do first (B) will ultimately do neither. (C) no error .

The question is not very clear. My correction would be, "One who perpetually hesitates as to which of the two things he will do first will ultimately do neither.

However I have a sneaking suspicion that your teacher might (wrongly) want you to answer "No error".

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