Think what it is like

Question

What do you think it is like?Think what it is like.I know that ‘What’ should be moved at the front in the first sentence.And then in the second sentence, why ‘what’ is not moved at the front?Are they different in English grammar?And is the speech part of ‘what’ in both sentence the same or different?What do you native English speakers think? Thank you so much as usual in advance.

BillJ · Accepted Answer

[1] What do you think it is like?

[2] Think what it is like.

In both examples "what" is an interrogative pronoun functioning as complement of "like".

The obvious difference between the two is that [1] is an interrogative clause, while [2] is an imperative clause – a directive.

[1] is a main clause where the interrogative word "what" is placed in initial position in order to form an interrogative. Since "what" is not the subject, its placement in this position triggers subject-auxiliary inversion.

By contrast, the imperative clause [2] contains the subordinate interrogative clause (embedded question) "what it is like". As with most subordinate interrogatives there is no inversion and, once again, "what" occupies initial position. The meaning of [2] is: "Think of the answer to the question 'What is it like?'"

Think what it is like

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