[General] How can I change this normal sentence to questioning sentence?

Status
Not open for further replies.

mokbon

Member
Joined
Jan 15, 2011
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Korean
Home Country
South Korea
Current Location
South Korea
Hi?


The sentence is

The lawyer’s circumlocution left everyone in the courtroom wondering what had been said.

I want to ask for "circumlocution"

Then, can I change it to "what of the lawyer’s did leave everyone in the courtroom wondering what had been said?"?
 

5jj

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Oct 14, 2010
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
British English
Home Country
Czech Republic
Current Location
Czech Republic
Then, can I change it to "what of the lawyer’s [STRIKE]did leave[/STRIKE] left everyone in the courtroom wondering what had been said?"?
That is now grammatically correct, but it sounds very unnatural, in my opinion.

If someone genuinely did not know why/how this situation arose, they would be more likely to ask something like, "Why did everyone seem unclear about what the lawyer had said?"
 

Raymott

VIP Member
Joined
Jun 29, 2008
Member Type
Academic
Native Language
English
Home Country
Australia
Current Location
Australia
Or, more specifically, "What was it about the lawyer's [manner of] speech that left ..."
 

5jj

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Oct 14, 2010
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
British English
Home Country
Czech Republic
Current Location
Czech Republic
This does rather remind me of myelf at the beginning of my career, when I was trying to invent comprehension passages for reading passages. Some of the questions I came up with were very silly.
 

mokbon

Member
Joined
Jan 15, 2011
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Korean
Home Country
South Korea
Current Location
South Korea
Thanks, fivejedjon, Raymott
Then, in this way~~
For these sentence,
1. Sally’s diary provided her mother with a detailed chronicle of her daughter ’s extracurricular activities.
to ask "chronicle", can I change it into "What was it about her daughter ’s extracurricular activities that Sally’s diary provide her mother with?"?

2. The patient was alarmed by the callowness of the medical staff.
to ask "callowness", can I change it into "What was it about the medical staff the patient alarmed by?"?

3. We wished the tone of Irwin’s words would have a more pleasing cadence, but he spoke in a dull monotone.
to ask "cadence", can I change it into "What did we wish would the tone of Irwin’s words have? But he spoke in a dull monotone."?

4. I don't think the incarceration of young people would help because...
to ask "incarceration", can I change it into "What was it about young people that I don’t think would help?"?

5. Cigarette smoking used to be commoner among affluent people.
to ask "affluent", can I change it into "Among what people does cigarette smoking used to be commoner?"?
 
Last edited:

Raymott

VIP Member
Joined
Jun 29, 2008
Member Type
Academic
Native Language
English
Home Country
Australia
Current Location
Australia
Thanks, fivejedjon, Raymott
Then, in this way~~
For these sentence,
1. Sally’s diary provided her mother with a detailed chronicle of her daughter ’s extracurricular activities.
to ask "chronicle", can I change it into "What was it about her daughter ’s extracurricular activities that Sally’s diary provide her mother with?"?
Not really.
Q. What did Sally's diary provider her mother with? -
A: A detailed chronicle of her daughter's activities.
These question are rather strange if you want a one-word answer. There's no way to get "chronicle" from a question. For academic purposes, you could ask: "What did Sally's diary provider her mother with that was a detailed summary of her daughter's extracurricular activities?"

2. The patient was alarmed by the callowness of the medical staff.
to ask "callowness", can I change it into "What was it about the medical staff that the patient was alarmed by?"?
The answer is "their callousness".

3. We wished the tone of Irwin’s words would have a more pleasing cadence, but he spoke in a dull monotone.
to ask "cadence", can I change it into "What did we wish would the tone of Irwin’s words have? But he spoke in a dull monotone."?
No, you can't get "cadence" from that. That problem is the same as in the first example.
Besides, you're not "changing" a sentence into a question. You are forming a question to ask about a specific word in a sentence already given.

4. I don't think the incarceration of young people would help because...
to ask "incarceration", can I change it into "What was it about young people that I don’t think would help?"?

5. Cigarette smoking used to be commoner among affluent people.
to ask "affluent", can I change it into "Among what type of people does cigarette smoking used to be commoner?"?
What's the purpose of these questions? Are they something you have to answer, or ones you've made up? Asking questions to get specific words out of sentences seems a strange thing to do.
 

emsr2d2

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jul 28, 2009
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
British English
Home Country
UK
Current Location
UK
As fivejedjon said, you're not changing a statement into a question. You're trying to formulate a question to which the sentence you've given would be an appropriate answer but in each case one vital piece of information is missing from the question. That's the word you're trying to get the question to elicit.

If you were changing a statement into a question, you would simply have:

The patient was alarmed by the callowness of the medical staff.
Was the patient alarmed by the callowness of the medical staff?

I don't know the purpose of the exercise but if the people doing this haven't been given the original statement and are simply asked "What was it about the attitude of the medical staff that alarmed the patient?" then they don't stand a chance of coming up with "callowness" as the answer!
 

mokbon

Member
Joined
Jan 15, 2011
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Korean
Home Country
South Korea
Current Location
South Korea
Thanks, emsr2d2, Raymott

I wanted to answer by myself to remember these words. And I found out my questions making are wrong in that it is not natural. Moreover, I guess it needs some more situations to answer it.

Thanks again for everyone
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top