When can only be used to start a relative clause modifying a time word, and where a place word; why can be used only if reason is the antecedent. That’s why these pronouns are used so comparatively often to mark headless clauses; there are so few antecedents they can have that they can be safely implied and therefore not expressed. Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search.
Why don’t most sources classify “when”, “where”, and “why” as relative pronouns?
Because where, when, and why have very limited use as relative pronouns. It’s not unusual for oblique wh-words to have limited usage; how may not be used as a relative pronoun at all. Stack Exchange network consists of 183 Q&A communities including Stack Overflow, the largest, most trusted online community for developers to learn, share their knowledge, and build their careers. More important, why refers to an adverbial clause or phrase of some sort in the relative clause — certainly not a noun phrase — and therefore it can’t possibly be the subject of the clause.
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This is important because relative pronouns that are the subject of their relative clause (like the man who/that came to dinner) cannot be deleted. But adverbial wh-words — like why, where, when, and sometimes how — can’t ever fall into that category. They apparently only include relative pronouns that usually refer to an explicit antecedent, as opposed to those that usually include their antecedents, as do what (always) and where (usually). In your examples, those words clearly function as relative pronouns.
Why is “t” sometimes pronounced like “d” in American English?
- It’s not unusual for oblique wh-words to have limited usage; how may not be used as a relative pronoun at all.
- In your examples, those words clearly function as relative pronouns.
- Stack Exchange network consists of 183 Q&A communities including Stack Overflow, the largest, most trusted online community for developers to learn, share their knowledge, and build their careers.
- You might as well ask why verbs have a past tense, why nouns have plural forms, why nouns are not verbs, why we use prepositions, etc.
- It’s not possible to answer why a language works in the way it does.
Not quite as limited as how, however.How can’t be used at all as a relative pronoun;one may use that, or nothing at all, buthow (which refers to way) is ungrammatical as a relative marker. And these are nouns that could make sense with a Why relative pronoun;try it, if you dare, with nouns that couldn’t, like rock, salamander, or durability. Different English dialects have different rhythms for words, which causes letters to get assimilated, softened, and dropped. I think there is no difference except that the first sounds more emphasized.
- Can you please explain to me the difference in meaning between these two questions?
- As a result the t sound is either emphasized or assimilated into the ch sound.
- Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search.
- We would normally say something like, “Why do the kids next door always hit the ball through my window?” instead, because to assign the action to the ball, rather than the people hitting it, would be strange.
- I think there is no difference except that the first sounds more emphasized.
Why do we use “-s” with verbs
They all mean pretty much the same thing; you just have to choose the particular flavor you’re looking for at the time of writing. The ball doesn’t come through the window of its own accord, of course. We would normally say something like, “Why do the kids next door always hit the ball through my window?” instead, because to assign the action to the ball, rather than the people hitting it, would be strange.
While many people prefer to avoid redundancy in writing (“Omit needless words”), a little redundancy is often helpful in speech to improve flow and to compensate for the vagaries of hearing and attention span. It’s not a matter of redundancy; all pronouns are redundant, after all.It’s just that why is very limited in its distribution. If you pronounce the t as t instead of d in a word like butter, the rhythm will be out of sync with American pronunciations. This is the same reason Brits often pronounce literally, litch-rally or lit-rally instead of lid-erally like Americans. They don’t soften their t’s and the rhythm of the e is faster in British English.
You might as well ask why verbs have a past tense, why nouns have plural forms, why nouns are not verbs, why we use prepositions, etc. Simply because that’s an integral functional part of the English language. I’m guessing by your profile name that your first language is Arabic; so why do you conjugate verbs in masculine and feminine in Arabic? It’s not possible to answer why a language works in the way it does.
Sometimes we use variants to freshen up our writing, or avoid variance to hammer home a repetitive point. If you are asking many similar questions of this type in a row, you may repeat the same construction (anaphora). But usually you’re not wielding a rhetorical jackhammer, so variation is the way to go to keep your prose from getting dull.
Can you please explain to me the difference in meaning between these two questions? No (frequently styled №) is the abbreviation for the Latin word numero (in number). Because Latinate abbreviations were second nature to educated people who wrote in Latin. When they wrote in English, why are forex spreads so high right now they carried these abbreviations over to the “new” language. This means why — or that — can be freely deleted after reason. I.e, deleting why in the sentences above also produces exactly the same pattern of grammaticality and ungrammaticality.
As a result the t sound is either emphasized or assimilated into the ch sound. “why” can be compared to an old Latin form qui, an ablative form, meaning how. Today”why” is used as a question word to ask the reason or purpose of something. This use might be explained from a formula such as “How does it come that …”.
As far as I know, “That’s the reason I…” would still be grammatically correct, but I can’t find anything stating one way or the other. Flap-t (/d/ instead of /t/) often happens between vowel sounds or after a vowel and before a liquid. It’s because the ‹l› was never really there in any historical pronunciation of English. We’ve just gotten used to always seeing it at the start of a question, but it’s really there to draw attention. Eliminating ‘that’ before ‘Bob’ would seem to be more in context with the criticism of the way Bob sounds. There are many stylistic variants you can use to ask why something happens.
