Which is right?

"Please tell me what it is." is correct.
"What is it? Please tell me." would also be correct.
Cheers

Thanks for your advice. But I do see and hear native English speakers
saying the second one, especially in longer sentences like:

"Please tell me what is the purpose of doing this instead of doing that."

Is such sentence grammatically wrong?
Thanks.

In the question form we use the verb to be ' is ' in front of the object, but if we add ' please tell me or can you please tell me something like that we reverse the order of the ' object ' and ' verb to be '

What is it ?

" Please tell me what it ( is ) ? "

They are both correct. Use them interchangably.

The first version is more common, so it's safe to stick to that most of the time. If you want more OOMPH, use the second version. People pay more attention to a sentence if differently ordered are the words.

Rommie

Rommie, I may well be wrong but shouldn't the second be split into two sentences or employ a comma?

Hmmm....

If "what" is being used as an interrogative pronoun, you'd need a comma.
On the other hand, if "what" is being used as a clause-linker substituting for "that, which", then you woudn't.

It seems to me that both interpretations are possible, but that one is much more common than the other.

Rommie

Yes, the first is without doubt the one virtually all native speakers use.
The second would be considered quite unusual, and would probably raise eyebrows..
Cheers

That's true in this particular case, but it's not true in general.

Simon Phlui, the original poster, referred to the sentence "Please tell me what is the purpose of doing this instead of doing that." I see nothing wrong with this sentence. It seems to me to be interchangable with "Please tell me what the purpose of ... is". The fact that it is less common simply gives it more power, bu

No problem Rommie, differing opinions help to make this site interesting.
Cheers