Word order

Question

my student asked me why is the verb put in the last part of the sentence:Boracay is where the best beach is.

Avangi · Accepted Answer

jenabelBoracay is where the best beach is.

I should probably leave this for the professors.

There are probably lots of ways to analyze it.

We go where the girls are. "Go" is the main verb. "Where the girls are" is, I believe, a subordinate clause serving as a complement to the main verb. It could be inverted to "The girls are where," but we wouldn't say it that way.
It makes best sense as the answer to a question: Where do you usually go? (reply) We go where the girls are.

Boracay is beautiful. "Beautiful" is a complement to the being verb "is."
Why do you go to Boracay? (reply) Boracay is where the best beach is. (The best beach is where.)

I think this is a subordinate clause which serves as a complement to the being verb "is."

If you were writing an article about beaches, you'd probably say, "The best beach is at Boracay."
But if you're writing an article about Boracay, you'd probably say, "Boracay is where the best beach is."
I'm sure someone has some rules to cover this.

Why do you go to Boracay? (reply) That's where the best beach is.("That's" seems to be the main clause.)

That is where I live. "Is" is the main verb. the clause "I live where" is the complement to "is."
We put the verb "live" at the end.

Cool Breeze · Answer

Avangi has given you a very scholarly explanation. I'm just wondering what you mean by "in the last part of the sentence". You don't mean is could be omitted, do you? I don't think so. I wonder if where has led you to think is should be before the best beach: Boracay is where is the best beach. No, that would be a direct question: Where is the best beach?

The structure in the sentence is normal when the first word (Boracay) is given special emphasis. Since the last part of the sentence isn't a question, the subject (the best beach) precedes the verb (is).

CB

PS: I've been to Boracay Island. I flew from Manila to Kalibo and was taken in a minibus to the part of the island from which it is just a stone's throw to Boracay by boat. The beach is beautiful and very long too.

AlpheccaStars · Answer

jenabelBoracay is where the best beach is.

Hi Jenabel:

Make it simpler. The sentence has a simple pattern:
subject / verb/ complement.

Boracay (subject) is (verb) the place(complement).

A relative clause can describe place.

... the place where the best beach is. (The underlined is a relative clause, describing place.)
For example:
He goes to the place where the best beach is.
He goes to Boracay.

Boracay (subject) is (verb) the place(complement) where the best beach is (relative clause, describing place.).

The complement noun, the place, can be omitted from the sentence. The relative clause just becomes a noun clause, which functions as the complement.

Boracay (subject) is (verb) where the best beach is (noun clause, complement.).

Sometimes you will see two verbs next to each other in a sentence. One belongs to the clause, and the other is the main verb in the sentence.

Boracay, where the best beach is, is a popular place on the summer weekends.

BillJ · Answer

Boracay is where the best beach is.

Sentences like this where the verb 'be' is 'stranded' at the end of the sentence are quite common in English. We say 'stranded' because the verb 'be' normally requires a complement such as an adjective, preposition or noun phrase, or a subordinate clause to complete its meaning.

The underlined expression is not a clause - it's a special kind of noun phrase with an embedded relative clause (it's called a fused relative construction) which has a meaning comparable to "Boracay is the place where the best beach is", where the noun phrase 'the place' is head of the phrase.

To analyse it you need to insert a 'gap' at the end, thus: 'Boracay is the place [where the best beach is ___']. The gap represents the missing complement which in this case is 'the place'. Of course, because the verb in the matrix clause is 'be', it follows that 'the place = Boracay'.

Does that help?

BillJ

CalifJim · Answer

jenabelWord order

my My student asked me why ~~is the verb~~ the verb is put in the last part of the sentence:
Boracay is where the best beach is.Here's what you can tell your student.

where the best beach is is an indirect question. These are embedded in larger sentences.

The corresponding direct question is Where is the best beach?

The statement form is The best beach is (here).

Note the position of the best beach and is in all three structures:

Statement: The best beach is (here)

Direct question: (Where) is the best beach ?
Indirect question: (where) the best beach is

The statement and the indirect question have the same word order. The direct question has a different word order.

For subject-verb inversion in direct questions, but not in indirect questions, see

For more examples of direct and corresponding indirect questions, see
(Many of the examples have "is" at the end, just like the sentence you were asking about.)
________

By the way, you also had an indirect question in your post, which had the wrong word order, and which I corrected.

CJ

Avangi · Answer

CalifJimwhere the best beach is is an indirect question. These are embedded in larger sentences.
The corresponding direct question is Where is the best beach?

Certainly, She's asking me where the best beach is is an indirect question, or at least an indirect quote.

But a statement or an imperative seem like quite different things: That's where it is. / Tell me where it is.

It really seems arbitrary to me to call these questions in any sense of the word. Of course I'm willing to accept that certain authorities say that that's what they are.

Perhaps it's the word "indirect" which licenses this kind of abuse. A bribe is an indirect tax. The definition of the word "tax" has no relevance.

"I'm broke" is an indirect question. The corresponding direct question is, "Can you lend me some money?"

Is That's where I live an indirect question? New York is where I live. ??

Best wishes, - A.

AlpheccaStars · Answer

Actually, I had the same feeling about it as Avangi.

The island is where the best beaches are. - Does not sound like interrogative mood to me.

And, in response to Bill, it also seems to fit the definition of a dependent clause. It has a subject and a verb. The corresponding interrogative (with the inverted word order) is a main clause, after all. How does moving the verb change it from being a clause to being a phrase? It does change the mood from interrogative to declarative, and being a main clause to being a dependent one.

Here is my thinking process:

Where are the best beaches? (main clause, interrogative mood)
... the place where the best beaches are. (dependent clause, declarative mood, adjectival )
Removing the noun that is being modified changes its function from adjectival to nominal.
The island is ~~(the place)~~ where the best beaches are.

Is this not logical?

Avangi · Answer

In all honesty, I realize (too late) that CJ explicitly cites the fragment "where the best beach is" as an indirect question.
Yes, the words may be rearranged to form a direct question, but how does that relate to what's in the mind of the speaker?
Isn't mood important, as Ms. Stars suggests?

- A.

CalifJim · Answer

AvangiOf course I'm willing to accept that certain authorities say that that's what they are.

I don't think "the authorities", whoever they are, say they are indirect questions in the case of "That is where it is". As you see, of the five people who answered the OP, only one (yours truly) took that approach! (CB did mention the idea of a question, so his approach might be considered to be similar to mine. I don't know for sure about that.)

CJ

CalifJim · Answer

Avangithe words may be rearranged to form a direct question, but how does that relate to what's in the mind of the speaker?

You are concerned about what is in the mind of the native speaker who utters the sentence. The OP is concerned about what is in the mind of the struggling student who has no clue how to put words in the right order when constructing a sentence. Using a little intuition based on learner's mistakes, I assumed the student may have wanted to say

B is where is the best beach,

a reflex action from hearing questions like "Where is the best beach?"
(Incidentally, this is just like what CB said.)

just as students frequently say things like

I don't know where does he work.

based on "Where does he work?"

Once they learn the question pattern with inversion, they want to apply it everywhere!
____

My assumption led to my use of "pedagogical license" in the explanation. (Maybe it was a bad assumption, but it was the assumption I made at the time.)

Yes, I realize that the case of That is where the beach is is different from the case of Tell me where the beach is, but, in my humble opinion, the learner is not ready for a scholarly discussion of the differences. The desired result (correct word order) can be obtained by painting with a broad brush, so to speak, and without a philosophical debate about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, so to speak. Years from now, when the student has developed a better understanding of the basics, those more subtle issues can be raised.

I know that not everyone agrees with this approach, and that many believe one should incorporate the principles of abstract algebra even while teaching first-graders to add 2 and 2, but I just happen not to be one of them! Learn to do it by rote first, by whatever easy and pragmatic device you can. Think about it later!

CJ

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