"There's a thing that I don't know what is" - Is this correct grammar? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by PlogLod@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

29 comments fedilink hide all child comments

How do you say something like that?

"There's a thing for which I don't know what it is" "There's a thing where I don't know what it is" "There's a thing that I don't know what is"

or (the one which I hear people say a lot but sounds awkward:) "There's a thing that/which I don't know what it is"?

To be honest they all sound awkward to me to varying degrees

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] redimk@lemmy.dbzer0.com 33 points 1 year ago

I'm not a grammar expert and English is not my first language but I think I used to say this before and I just ended up taking out the "what it is" and changed it for the thing I'm trying to remember:

There's a thing that I don't know the name of

There's a thing that I don't know how to describe

There's a thing whose purpose is a mystery to me

Is that what you're refering to? Sorry if it's not. I don't think any of the first three examples are correct, or at least they sound really weird to me.

Please do correct me if there's an English mayor somewhere though!

[-] locuester@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 year ago

Your solutions are perfect. Very well stated.

a native English speaker

this post was submitted on 17 Oct 2023

41 points (93.6% liked)

Asklemmy

43822 readers

895 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

Open-ended question
Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

Lemmyverse: community search
sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
!lemmy411@lemmy.ca: a community for finding communities

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS