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Mudclay Posted 14 years ago
Grammar

What/which

Dear teachers?

Are these both acceptable? Which is more natural?

What comes first lightning or thunder?
Which comes first lightning or thunder?

Thank you.
  

Top answer

Both are ok. But you need a double hyphen before "lightning". What comes first -- lightning or thunder?

— Ivanhr

  • Both are ok.
  • But you need a double hyphen before "lightning".
  • What comes first -- lightning or thunder?
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11 Answers
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Both are ok. But you need a double hyphen before "lightning".

What comes first -- lightning or thunder?
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Thank you teacher Ivanhr. So, is the "double hyphen" very important for formal writing?
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IvanhrYes.
What is this double hyphen of which you speak?
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IvanhrBoth are ok. But you need a double hyphen before "lightning".
A comma is fine, in my opinion.
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fivejedjon IvanhrBoth are ok. But you need a double hyphen before "lightning".A comma is fine, in my opinion.
Yes, I suppose so.
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enoon IvanhrYes.What is this double hyphen of which you speak?
What would you call it then?
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I don't call it anything—I'm asking you. I am not aware of any convention that allows a doubled hyphen with a space on either side of it as a mark of punctuation in standard English, but typography is not my specialty.

As far as I am concerned, there are three marks of that kind: the hyphen, the en dash, and the em dash. The only one of those that can go in the original sentence is an em
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enoonThe only one of those that can go in the original sentence is an em dash
I made a mistake (the sign I wrote is not a double hyphen). As for a comma being better, I won't object to that.
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