it
- Thread starter beachboy
- Start date
- Status
mmasny
Key Member
- Joined
- Oct 3, 2009
- Member Type
- Student or Learner
- Native Language
- Polish
- Home Country
- Poland
- Current Location
- Poland
I think that both What day is today? and
What day is it today? are correct grammatically. But the latter is less used.
In the first, 'today' is a noun, and in the second, it's an adverb in my opinion. I'd love to hear from natives too.
I am not a teacher.
What day is it today? are correct grammatically. But the latter is less used.
In the first, 'today' is a noun, and in the second, it's an adverb in my opinion. I'd love to hear from natives too.
I am not a teacher.
mmasny
Key Member
- Joined
- Oct 3, 2009
- Member Type
- Student or Learner
- Native Language
- Polish
- Home Country
- Poland
- Current Location
- Poland
So would I, because it copies the Polish phrase. But take a look at these:I would prefer the second sentence actually.
"What day is today?" - Google Search
"What day is it today?" - Google Search
- Joined
- Jul 29, 2006
- Member Type
- English Teacher
- Native Language
- English
- Home Country
- UK
- Current Location
- UK
To my ear the first is just wrong.
Tomorrow is the day after today => It is the day after today
So
What day is it the day after today? => What day is it tomorrow?
b
mmasny
Key Member
- Joined
- Oct 3, 2009
- Member Type
- Student or Learner
- Native Language
- Polish
- Home Country
- Poland
- Current Location
- Poland
Thanks, BobK. I was actually surprised by the google hits I found, but I thought they had to be right. I thought I liked the second phrase because it's Polish-like and after thinking for a while I see it's not
We're more likely to say the first. So do you think google is wrong again? (it seems it's never right :-/)
- Joined
- Jul 29, 2006
- Member Type
- English Teacher
- Native Language
- English
- Home Country
- UK
- Current Location
- UK
Thanks, BobK. I was actually surprised by the google hits I found, but I thought they had to be right. I thought I liked the second phrase because it's Polish-like and after thinking for a while I see it's not
So do you think google is wrong again? (it's seems it's never right :-/)
Hmm. Those hits made me think If the expected answer is a day or date, I'd expect 'it'. But sometimes the question doesn't expect that answer:
What day is it tomorrow? [Is it Tuesday or Wednesday/ 23rd or 24th]
But
Q What day is tomorrow?
A Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of your life/the day we start putting this right....
(That doesn't answer the Google question; it's just a thought. Arguments both for and against Google as a corpus tool are fairly easy to come up with, and I don't plan to rehearse them here. ;-))
b
- Status