Grammar
I would like to know which is the correct way to ask this question?
1. May I ask what this document is?
2. May I ask what is this document?
I would appreciate your response.
Top answer
As I know, both are correct.
- As I know, both are correct.
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For me, only this "May I ask what this document is?" one is correct, grammatically. And I can give you reasons for this. That's an example of "embedded questions".
You can take the help of Google to get more information about that topic.
"What is this document?", when embedded into another question or a statement, becomes "what this document is" and follows a different word order
0We don't use questions as subordinate clause. We should transform the question into the statement from when used as a subordinate clause. In other words, the verb must not be placed before the subject if it is a subordinate or depending clause :
May I ask what is the document? [Incorrect]
Here, the subordinate clause is :"what is the document". The verb 'is' should not be placed be
0apatzinguense1. May I ask what this document is?
Correct.
Possible answers:
Yes, you may.
No, you have to ask at the information desk.
apatzinguense2. May I ask what is this document?
The punctuation needs to be changed to make this grammatically correct.
May I ask
0
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