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below is the original sentence I would like to say:

"I would like to help the team understand what are the factors that have the potential to sway our financials significantly"

I am wondering can I change the sentence to below:

"I would like to help the team understand what are the factors having the potential to sway our financials significantly"

Thanks

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    I want to help the team understand those factors with the potential to significantly sway our financials. Jun 22, 2020 at 15:22
  • You shouldn't have subject-auxiliary inversion, so without changing your wording too much, you need I would like to help the team understand [what the factors are that have the potential to sway our financials significantly]. Syntactically, the bit I've put in brackets is an interrogative clause (embedded question).
    – BillJ
    Jun 22, 2020 at 15:31
  • Tangential comment: Is it really necessary to say "have the potential to" rather than "could"? Jun 23, 2020 at 2:39

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Both are correct but the syntax is a little unusual because, in both cases, you've put the subject (factors) after the verb (are). It's like you're stating the question that you want to propose to the group but you're embedding it in another sentence without any punctuation to make it clear that's what you're doing. "I would like to help the team understand what the factors are that have the potential to sway our financials significantly." would be clearer. Putting the subject first makes it read like a statement rather than a question in disguise.

That's if you want to stick to your general structure. I think it would be even clearer just to say, "I would like to help the team understand the factors that have the potential to sway our financials significantly."

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