We couldn't tell if what he was doing was singing or making some other kind of noise.
From the above sentence why can't we remove the "what". "If What..." sounds very strange to me. Can you explain please?
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You either say 'if what he was doing was singing' or 'if he was singing'– Cathy GartaganisCommented May 21, 2016 at 4:45
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3 Answers
In this example you cannot remove the "what" because the entire phrase "what he was doing" acts as a noun phrase in the sentence. Removing any one of the four words changes the meaning of the sentence or makes it non-sensical. You can, however, change it to:
"We couldn't tell if he was singing..."
A parallel example to reinforce this point might be the following:
"We couldn't determine if what they decided to do was in the best interest of their community."
Here, the noun phrase "what they decided to do" must remain intact or be replaced by another noun phrase such as "their decision". Simply removing the word "what" from the noun phrase results in a sentence that is both grammatically incorrect and differs in meaning from the original one.
We couldn't tell if [what he was doing was singing or making some other kind of noise].
No, you can’t omit "what". This is called a 'fused' relative construction where the antecedent and the relative word are fused together rather than being expressed separately as in simpler constructions. The bracketed expression is thus a noun phrase whose head is fused with the relative word in the relative clause. If you were to omit "what", you’d be omitting the head word of the noun phrase so it would make no sense of course.
In your example, "what" is head of the noun phrase and at the same time object of the verb "do". Its meaning is roughly "that which", so your sentence is comparable to the non-fused We couldn’t tell if that which he was doing was singing or making some other kind of noise.
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@user1187968 No, I'm afraid not. That would make it ungrammatical because "if" is essential to introduce the interrogative clause what he was doing was singing or making some other kind of noise.– BillJCommented May 23, 2016 at 16:01
it works but it does sound awkward because you could simplify the sentence by putting it "if he was singing..." But here is another way "if what" could be used: "If what we heard was singing or just noise we couldn't be sure."
