Is the following sentence a question!?
what should be the meaning of life
I don't mean the meaning I'm talking about Grammer and structure
2 Answers
The initial word "what" and the inverted word order mark this as a question.
What should be the meaning of life?
and
What should the meaning of life be?
are equivalent in meaning. Either word order is acceptable if the subject is a noun.
If, however, the subject is a pronoun, it is idiomatic for the pronoun to be placed between the modal and main verb.
I have only a rudimentary knowledge of the history of the development of English. I can speculate that this difference between the treatment of noun and pronoun is a holdover from Germanic word order.
Yes, it's a question. Sentences that begin with an interrogative word, like "who", "what", "where", "why", or "how", followed by a form of "to be", are normally questions.
"Who is that man?"
"Where was Waldo?"
"How will you know?"
Etc. "Should be" here is a variant on "to be".
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yeah I know. It's just that we say "what should it be" not "what should be it". Right?– MhmdCommented Nov 5, 2018 at 19:06
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In this case I think either word order works: "What should be the meaning of life?" and "What should the meaning of life be?" But in other cases, my intuition says it's one or the other. "What should be written on this paper?", NOT "What should on this paper written be?" I'm afraid I don't know what the rule is.– JayCommented Nov 5, 2018 at 21:57
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Why should it be correct in this case? there are no special differences.I think it must follow the rules– MhmdCommented Nov 6, 2018 at 16:06
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So since I'm new in this site, I don't know how to update my post in order it appears in the main list where all the new questions are. Can you help me?– MhmdCommented Nov 7, 2018 at 15:28