Why she is going to New York?

[Dharminder Singh]

I often make questions starting with What, When, Where, Why, Which etc. wrong. For example.

1. Why she is going to New York?
2. When she is going to New York?
3. How she will go there?
4. What she will do there?

An online grammar correction tool said that in questions 1,2 "is" Will come before "she", and in questions 3,4 "will" Will come before "she".
Can you please tell why so? Why these questions are wrong?

 

[Tarheel]

I never heard of making questions before. (I ask questions.)

I misread the sentences at first. (See below.)

1. Why is she going to New York?
2. When is she going to New York?
3. How will she get there?
4. What will she do there?

Note the placement of the verbs in those sentences.

 

[SoothingDave]

This is the basic way we form questions in English. The verb comes before the subject. Why is she going? How will she go?

We can ask questions without even using any "question" words (who, what, where, etc.) by this use of inversion.

Is she going to the party? Are there going to be drinks there? Will we stay late?

 

[Tarheel]

There's going to be a party? When? Where? Am I invited?

Notice that the first one doesn't have the usual structure. How is that? Well, the party had already been mentioned, and the speaker is responding to that. Note also that a question can sometimes be just one word.

 

[probus]

@Dharminder Singh please don't clutter the forum with posts saying thank you. Use the Thank button if you wish to express gratitude.

 

[Dharminder Singh]

This is the basic way we form questions in English. The verb comes before the subject. Why is she going? How will she go?

We can ask questions without even using any "question" words (who, what, where, etc.) by this use of inversion.

Is she going to the party? Are there going to be drinks there? Will we stay late?

Would you please tell me what type of verb "is" and "will" are?

 

[Dharminder Singh]

I never heard of making questions before. (I ask questions.)

I misread the sentences at first. (See below.)

1. Why is she going to New York?
2. When is she going to New York?
3. How will she get there?
4. What will she do there?

Note the placement of the verbs in those sentences.

Does the following sentence makes some sense?

Why she is going to New York, we need her in Washington.

Is this sentence grammatically right or wrong?

 

[Tarheel]

@Dharminder Singh What I meant by I misread the sentences at first" was that I didn't notice that the sentence structure was off. (The brain tends to see what it expects to see.)

 

[SoothingDave]

Auxiliary verbs or helping verbs.

Does the following sentence makes some sense?

Why she is going to New York, we need her in Washington.

Is this sentence grammatically right or wrong?

You have completely ignored what I said in post 3 about inverting the subject and verb.

 

[Tarheel]

Does the following sentence makes some sense?

Why she is going to New York, we need her in Washington.

Is this sentence grammatically right or wrong?

Say: "Why is she going to New York? We need her in Washington."

Say: "Does the following sentence make sense?"

Please reread all the posts in this thread.

 

[Dharminder Singh]

Auxiliary verbs or helping verbs.


You have completely ignored what I said in post 3 about inverting the subject and verb.

No, I haven't ignored inversion method. I learned that verb always comes before the subject in a question. I asked another doubt. I just asked; Is the following sentence follows any rule of english grammar or it's completely wrong.

Why she is going to New York, we need her in Washington.

If this sentence is wrong, please correct it using proper punctuation.

 

[Dharminder Singh]

Auxiliary verbs or helping verbs.


You have completely ignored what I said in post 3 about inverting the subject and verb.

I got confused because "why" can also act as a conjunction. I thought that in following sentence it is acting as a conjunction.

Why she is going to New York, we need her in Washington.

Please tell me. Is "why" acting here as a conjunction or not?

 

[Rover_KE]

I asked another doubt question. I just asked Is 'Does the following sentence follow any rule of English grammar or it's is it completely wrong?'

Why she is going to New York, we need her in Washington.

It's completely wrong for the reason SoothingDave gave in post #3.

If this sentence is wrong, please correct it using proper punctuation.

It should be two sentences, and Tarheel corrected it in post #10.

 

[emsr2d2]

Why she is going to New York, we need her in Washington.

1. By starting with "Why", you're trying to ask a question but you haven't put a question mark anywhere.
2. As you've been told, this would naturally be two sentences. The first is a question - "Why is she going to New York?" The second is a statement, explaining why you're surprised/annoyed that she's going to New York.

The only way to put the two thoughts into one sentence would be to make it a statement, not a question. For example, "I don't understand why she's going to New York when we need her in Washington". Bear in mind, though, that because it's not a question, no one is necessarily going to give you the reason she's going to New York.

 

[Dharminder Singh]

1. By starting with "Why", you're trying to ask a question but you haven't put a question mark anywhere.
2. As you've been told, this would naturally be two sentences. The first is a question - "Why is she going to New York?" The second is a statement, explaining why you're surprised/annoyed that she's going to New York.

The only way to put the two thoughts into one sentence would be to make it a statement, not a question. For example, "I don't understand why she's going to New York when we need her in Washington". Bear in mind, though, that because it's not a question, no one is necessarily going to give you the reason she's going to New York.

Can I conclude that if " Why" is at the starting of a sentence, then it always act like a question.

For why to act as a conjunction, it should be in the middle of a sentence i.e. there should be a clause before it.

 

[emsr2d2]

Can I conclude that if "Why" is at the starting start of a sentence, then it always act like indicates a question?

Unfortunately, you can't conclude that. For example, "Why she did that I really don't know" is a grammatical sentence and it's not a question. However, I don't think you need to worry about complicated structures like that at your level. As a general rule, most "Who/What/Why/When/Where/How" sentences are likely to be questions.

For "why" to act as a conjunction, it should be in the middle of a sentence i.e. there should be a clause before it. Am I right?

In general, yes. In the example sentence I gave in my first paragraph above, it's not a conjunction.

 

[Dharminder Singh]

Unfortunately, you can't conclude that. For example, "Why she did that I really don't know" is a grammatical sentence and it's not a question. However, I don't think you need to worry about complicated structures like that at your level. As a general rule, most "Who/What/Why/When/Where/How" sentences are likely to be questions.

In general, yes. In the example sentence I gave in my first paragraph above, it's not a conjunction.

OK. Now I got it. I thought that in the following sentence that you wrote in previous paragraph, "Why" is acting like a conjunction.

"I don't understand why she's going to New York when we need her in Washington"

Which part of speech is "why" in this sentence?

Could this sentence be rephrased in such a way that "why" acts like a conjunction?

 

[emsr2d2]

OK. Now I got it. I thought that in the following sentence that you wrote in previous paragraph, "why" is acting like a conjunction.

"I don't understand why she's going to New York when we need her in Washington."

Which part of speech is "why" in this sentence? Could this sentence be rephrased in such a way that "why" acts like a conjunction?

In that sentence, it is a conjunction. I was referring to the sentence "Why she did that I really don't know". It's not a conjunction there.

 

[Dharminder Singh]

In that sentence, it is a conjunction. I was referring to the sentence "Why she did that I really don't know". It's not a conjunction there.

In the following sentence both " why" and "when" are acting like a conjunction. Isn't it?

"I don't understand why she's going to New York when we need her in Washington."