Recently I was been posted with this question: Why is
1. I don't know who is he. (grammatically incorrect)
2. I don't know who he is. (grammatically correct)
Even as a native English speaker, I could not give the person asking this question a definite answer or explanation. Please enlighten me on this. Thanks!
-
I can only imagine the first sentence being used with a comma in between: "I don't know, who is he?" is something that a person might say out loud, as speech does not adhere to formal grammar.– SymantraCommented Jul 4, 2016 at 9:15
-
Another related question, Changing subject and verb positions in statements and questions.– user140086Commented Jul 4, 2016 at 9:43
-
Careless me, didn't realise this question is about indirect speech. Thank you everyone for your help.– DunnoHowToCodeCommented Jul 4, 2016 at 9:45
Add a comment
|
1 Answer
"Who is he" can only be a complete sentence, whereas "who he is" can only be a clause embedded in another sentence. In English where there is little conjugation, word order is more heavily relied upon to make that kind of distinction, so this shows up a lot.
-
This sounds logical to me, I shall convey as such to my friend who posted me with this question. Thank you so much! Commented Jul 4, 2016 at 9:25