What did you say was your name?
John
your name?"
It has been a while since I was learning these things in an English class.
I've searched my Fowler's and my Swan English Usage Guides, but can find
nothing. In addition to explaining why the former is better than the
latter, might anyone also be able to explain why I couldn't find this in my
usage guides? Am I looking in the wrong types of books? Or am I looking
wrongly in the right books?
Thank you, to anyone who will help me.
John Schless
Mark Brader
> Why is "What did you say your name was?" better than "What did you say was
> your name?"
Because the first is idiomatic and the second, although correct, isn't.
--
Mark Brader, Toronto | "GUALITY IS FIRST"
m...@vex.net | --slogan of "Dongda electron CO.,LTD"
Michael J Hardy
> Why is "What did you say your name was?" better than "What did
> you say was your name?"
In "What did you say your name was?", "your name" is the
subject of the subordinate clause. But in the second sentence,
"your name" seems like a subjective complement (or "predicate
nominative", if you like to call it that). In "My name is X",
"My name" is the subject and "X" is the complement. In "X is
my name", "X" is the subject and "my name" is the complement.
Mike Hardy
John O'Flaherty
wrote:
>Why is "What did you say your name was?" better than "What did you say was
>your name?"
>
>It has been a while since I was learning these things in an English class.
>I've searched my Fowler's and my Swan English Usage Guides, but can find
>nothing. In addition to explaining why the former is better than the
>latter, might anyone also be able to explain why I couldn't find this in my
>usage guides? Am I looking in the wrong types of books? Or am I looking
>wrongly in the right books?
I think "What did you say your name was?" is a changed word order
form of "You said your name was ...". The question word and the
change in word order make it a question. You can say "What is your
name?", which is a change from "Your name is ..." that makes it a
question. In your second example, the word order is changed in two
places, which isn't necessary to make a question.
In your two examples, the first sounds right, but I wouldn't hear the
second one as wrong, or even strange.
john
Joe Fineman
> Why is "What did you say your name was?" better than "What did you
> say was your name?"
Because what I said before you forgot it was probably "My name is
Joe", not "Joe is my name". Both are grammatical, of course, but the
second puts a kind of stress on "Joe" that in most circumstances would
be unnatural.
--
--- Joe Fineman j...@TheWorld.com
||: As people go, I am pretty bad, but as bad people go, I am :||
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