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Seagull Posted 11 years ago
Grammar
what he is
(a) Tom is not what he was.
(b) Diligence made Bob what he is.
(c) He has made me what I am today.
(d) His father has made him what he is.
(e) His parents made him what they wanted him to be.
These five sentences are examples from my dictionaries and grammar books. They are all meant to explain a usage of the relative pronoun "what".
Do they sound natural to native speakers? If any of them do not, please tell me which is/are okay and which is/are not.
Also, I don't quite understand what the structure "what sb is" means. Does it mean his personality, social position, or some other thing(s)?
(b) Diligence made Bob what he is.
(c) He has made me what I am today.
(d) His father has made him what he is.
(e) His parents made him what they wanted him to be.
These five sentences are examples from my dictionaries and grammar books. They are all meant to explain a usage of the relative pronoun "what".
Do they sound natural to native speakers? If any of them do not, please tell me which is/are okay and which is/are not.
Also, I don't quite understand what the structure "what sb is" means. Does it mean his personality, social position, or some other thing(s)?
Top answer
seagull Do they sound natural to native speakers? Yes. seagull Does it mean his personality, social position, or some other thing(s)?
- seagull Do they sound natural to native speakers?
- Yes.
- seagull Does it mean his personality, social position, or some other thing(s)?
- Yes, those kinds of things.
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5 Answers
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seagullDo they sound natural to native speakers?Yes.
seagullDoes it mean his personality, social position, or some other thing(s)?Yes, those kinds of things.
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Could I ask a further question? What is the difference between "who he is" and "what he is"?
I think that they are similar to some extent, but "who he is" includes such information as "Bob is Jim's brother." Meanwhile "what he is" is limited within "his personality, social position and these kinds of information." Am I right?
I think that they are similar to some extent, but "who he is" includes such information as "Bob is Jim's brother." Meanwhile "what he is" is limited within "his personality, social position and these kinds of information." Am I right?
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seagullCould you ask a further question? What is the difference between "who he is" and "what he is"?I think that they are similar to some extent, but "who he is" includes such information as "Bob is Jim's brother." Meanwhile "what he is" is limited within "his personality, social position and these kinds of information." Am I right?Yes, that seems basically
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