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Anonymous Posted 11 years ago
Grammar
Splitting “who is” with an object
I suppose all will agree that the following two sentences are correct:
„Who is he?“
„I would like to know who he is.“
In the second sentence the object is placed between „who“ and „is“. In some cases, however, the object will have to be something longer than „he“ and this can lead to sentences that look strange. Here is an invented example:
„I would like to know who the person that was at the football game at West Side Arena yesterday and promised to send us the pictures he took of us with his mobile phone, but, as far as I can see, never did, is.“
To me the “is” looks quite hard to connect to “who”. Admittedly, this is a deliberately convoluted example, and I know that one can rewrite the sentence or split it in two to avoid the awkwardness of the “is” at the end. But my question is the following: Is it possible to start the above sentence with “I would like to know who is the person that ...” in official writing?
„Who is he?“
„I would like to know who he is.“
In the second sentence the object is placed between „who“ and „is“. In some cases, however, the object will have to be something longer than „he“ and this can lead to sentences that look strange. Here is an invented example:
„I would like to know who the person that was at the football game at West Side Arena yesterday and promised to send us the pictures he took of us with his mobile phone, but, as far as I can see, never did, is.“
To me the “is” looks quite hard to connect to “who”. Admittedly, this is a deliberately convoluted example, and I know that one can rewrite the sentence or split it in two to avoid the awkwardness of the “is” at the end. But my question is the following: Is it possible to start the above sentence with “I would like to know who is the person that ...” in official writing?
Top answer
Although it's a temporary answer, I would instead use "identify" for "know who is".
- Although it's a temporary answer, I would instead use "identify" for "know who is".
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3 Answers
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Although it's a temporary answer, I would instead use "identify" for "know who is".
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AnonymousBut my question is the following: Is it possible to start the above sentence with “I would like to know who is the person that ...” in official writing?No. It goes like this: I would like to know who the person is that ...
"the person that was at the football game at ..." is called a "heavy clause", by the way, and it is a matter of
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CalifJimNo. It goes like this: I would like to know who the person is that ...Thank you so much, CalifJim! This was indeed the other alternative I was considering, just forgot to mention it in the original post. I think I will use this approach for most similar situations, which I encounter fairly frequently in my writing.
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