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Please Tell me which one among each question is correct. Thank you

A. Who do you think is the best actor in Hollywood?

B. Who do you think the best actor is in Hollywood?

Also,

A. Which phone do you think is yours?

B. Which phone do you think yours is?

3 Answers 3

1

A in both cases. You can tell by striking out the 'do you think' and 'in Hollywood' then you get:

A. Who is the best actor?
B. Who the best actor is?

and

A. Which phone is yours?
B. Which phone yours is?

Which is hopefully more clear. The B versions are really awkward, probably not correct in any usage. But in so far as they suggest meaning, the verbs tie to 'best actor' and 'yours' rather than 'which' or 'who' and they are statements rather than questions.

5
  • Is this correct Where do you think you're going?
    – James King
    Apr 17, 2015 at 21:12
  • Yes that is correct. And I can see how that causes confusion. The difference is that in 3rd case 'where' is an object, not a subject.
    – elc
    Apr 17, 2015 at 22:41
  • Maybe things get confused by 'you' being connected to both 'thinking' and 'going'. Consider this. "Where are you going?" is correct. So is "Where is it that you are going?" The latter is like your example. The definitive fragment "where you do think you are going" is turned into a question by reversing to "do you". I wanted to link to something authoritative on this form of inversion but...wow that water gets deep fast!
    – elc
    Apr 17, 2015 at 23:05
  • The B versions are correct under limited circumstances as echo questions. "I want to know who the best actor is." "Who the best actor is?" "Yeah, who the best actor is."
    – user230
    Apr 18, 2015 at 9:54
  • That is true, snailboat, but it's probably important to really emphasize that they are a correct way of expressing something else, not an interchangeably correct way of asking the same question.
    – elc
    Apr 20, 2015 at 18:08
0

In my opinion, Both As are correct. Making indirect questions is only confusing when you don’t know what the subject of the sentence is.

Who is a question asked to know the subject or the doer of the action. Therefore, unless there is a pronoun or an auxiliary verb, the noun in the who question is just an object or a noun complement.

Example 1: Who is beautiful? / Who is the best actor in Hollywood. / Who is the king of pop music? Note: beautiful/ best actor/ king of pop music are not the subject of the sentences; therefore, you don’t need to change the word order when inserting “Do you think”.

It will go like this: “Who (do you think) is beautiful? / Who (do you think) is the best actor in Hollywood? / Who (do you think) is the king of Pop music?”

In the second example, let’s try putting some pronouns and auxiliary verbs… Example 2: Who are you? / Whom will you send the letter to? Note: By putting (do you think), we need to change the order of the subject and the verb.

It will be like this: Who (do you think) you are? / Whom (do you think) you will send the letter to?

-1

Both first A and B are wrong as the "Who" supposed to be "Whom" since they are the one who would be receiving the actions (best actor) and you would be the subject, thinking [verb] the actor [whom] to receive best actor award in Hollywood [noun].

Broken down:
Whom (the one receiving action)
do you (subject)
think is [verb]
the best actor in Hollywood [noun]

UNLESS
Who (subject)
is the [verb]
best actor in Hollywood [noun]


Generally, both A and B are correct, the only difference would be the preference (and probably emphasis).

4
  • Goodness, no, @XPMai. Here are some correct sentences: Who is the best actor? Whom will you give the prize for best actor to? To whom will you give the prize for best actor? Whom will you vote for, for best actor? Who will get the prize? Who do you think will get the prize? Apr 18, 2015 at 18:19
  • One way to spot that overusage of whom is to pull out the 'do you think'. Hopefully the error is more glaring in "Whom is the best actor, do you think?"
    – elc
    Apr 20, 2015 at 18:13
  • Just to further clarify, the situation there is that the entire clause 'who is the best actor' is the object of 'think'. Not just the 'who'. That is why 'whom' is not called for.
    – elc
    Apr 20, 2015 at 18:16
  • "Just to further clarify, the situation there is that the entire clause 'who is the best actor' is the object of 'think'. Not just the 'who'." I don't understand what you meant. Can you try rephrasing it?
    – XPMai
    Apr 20, 2015 at 20:43

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