The Guardian has recently published an interview with Kurt Volker, who stated that:
“We can have a conversation with Ukraine like we would with any other country about what do they need.”
Why is he using inversion?
English Language Learners Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for speakers of other languages learning English. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this communityThe Guardian has recently published an interview with Kurt Volker, who stated that:
“We can have a conversation with Ukraine like we would with any other country about what do they need.”
Why is he using inversion?
This sound like something that happens occasionally in conversation. In spoken conversion though, it would come across more naturally.
Think of it like this: “We can have a conversation with Ukraine like we would with any other country about X.” Where X is the question "what do they need?".
In other words, "we can have a conversation with them about the question: what do they need?"