relative clause

Question

I was corrected my sentence as follows. I would like to know why the thing is better than what,here.

She talked about what her job was like and how useful what she learnt at our company was.
She talked about what her job was like and how useful the things what she learnt at our company were.

RandomGuy · Accepted Answer

The first sentence is grammatical; the second is not.
It should be

…how useful the things that she learnt at our company were.

Vsuresh · Answer

You can consider this, as well
She talked about the nature of her job and how useful the things that she learnt at our company was.

AlpheccaStars · Answer

She talked about what her job was like and how useful what she learnt at our company was.
Grammatically, this is OK, but to me it sounds rather awkwardly worded. The two main clauses have completely differend structures.
"what she learnt at our company" is a noun clause.
What she learnt at our company was useful.

She talked about what her job was like and how useful the things that she learnt at our company were.
To me, this is a bit clearer. Note: What is not a relative pronoun. It can be the subject or object of a dependent clause, though. Use that, who or which as a relative pronoun.

This is a noun phrase. A noun (things) with its restrictive relative clause.
the things that she learnt at our company

RandomGuy · Answer

vsuresh…how useful the things that she learnt at our company was.

That’s not correct (compare The things that she learnt at our company were/*was useful).

AlpheccaStarsthis is OK, but to me it sounds rather awkwardly worded. … She talked about what her job was like and how useful the things that she learnt at our company were.
To me, this is a bit clearer.

I agree that the things…were sounds better.

AlpheccaStarsWhat is not a relative pronoun.

I would call what a relative pronoun in the first sentence, but one that can occur only in fused relatives (so you could call it a fused relative pronoun). In what she learnt at our company, the antecedent and the relativized element are fused together into what instead of being expressed separately, as in the things that she learnt at our company.

relative clause

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