A question by Forum member English Editor posed sometime ago reminds of the playfully delightful 1973 song “Question Me An Answer,” composed by Burt Bacharach with lyrics by Hal David, that ends with these lines:
Let me show you just how I
Became an educated man
Question me an answer
Answer with a question
If you wanna’ know, if you wanna’ hear, if you wanna’ see
Question me an answer.English Editor’s question was this: “Which between the two questions below uses the correct structure? I’ve always thought No. 1 is the ‘correct’ question: (1) ‘If it could talk, what do you think
it would tell?’or ‘If it could talk, what do you think
would it tell?’ I always edit the work of authors who use the second structure, but more often than not, they choose to retain their original question and ‘undo’ my edits. They always ask for my source but I could not give them any.”
I assured English Editor that her Question #1 uses the grammatically correct syntax and structure: “If it could talk, what do you think
it would tell?”
That question is in the form of the so-called
second conditional sentence, which is used to denote unreal or improbable situations. Evidently, the use of the pronoun “it” in that sentence indicates that the subject isn’t a person but an animal or an inanimate thing in the figurative sense, say a wall or a lamppost.
In any case, that “it” couldn’t really talk so the situation described in that sentence is unreal if not outright impossible. (I must also say that the improbable use of the pronoun “it” for that “talking” subject is one other reason why the grammar and semantics of that sentence are rather slippery.)
As we know, a
conditional sentence normally contains two clauses, the condition or premise (
protasis) and the consequence or conclusion (
apodosis). In the case of the conditional question you presented, the components are the following:
Condition or premise: “If it could talk”
Consequence or conclusion in the indicative mood: “it would tell (something)”
However, in that sentence, this consequence is stated in the form of a question,
“What do you think it would tell?” Of course, the bigger question at issue here is why that form of the question is grammatically correct and this other form often preferred by the authors you’ve edited is incorrect: “If it could talk, what do you think
would it tell?”
The answer is that in English,
a question normally can’t be nested within another question. After a question is raised by the use of the interrogatives “what,” “who,” “why,” when,” “where,” or “how,” it’s mandatory for it to be grammatically followed by the question’s premise in the form of an
indicative statement. The correct question form is therefore
“What do you think it would tell?” where the question “What do you think”” is followed by the indicative “it would tell.”
In contrast, in the form often preferred by the authors you’ve edited, “What do you think would it tell?”, the question “What do you think” is followed by another interrogative, “would it tell?”—a form that runs counter to the proper form for a question.
I realize that alone, this explanation may be a hard to appreciate and accept, so I’m offering this other test to demonstrate which of the two forms of that conditional question is correct: reverse the order of the condition and the consequence in that sentence.
Your version: “What do you think
it would tell if it could talk?”
Your authors’ version: “What do you think
would it tell if it could talk?”
It should now be pretty clear that your version is not only the scrupulously correct but also the better-sounding question.
(Next:
The strange grammar of “need” as modal auxiliary) August 15, 2019
This essay, 1,156th of the series, appeared in the column “English Plain and Simple” by Jose A. Carillo in the Campus Press section of the August 9, 2019 print edition of The Manila Times
, © 2019 by the Manila Times Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.
