绑德sings
Sorry to disturb native English speakers. 1. If he knew it, I don't know what he would do. 2. If he knew it, he would do I don't know what. 3. If he knew it, what he would do I don't know. Question: Which is grammatically correct? Do they have the same meaning?
25 de mar. de 2025 9:28
Respuestas · 9
A
Alireza
Profesor profesional
1
✅ Sentence 1 is correct: "If he knew it, I don't know what he would do." → Natural and clear. ❌ Sentences 2 & 3 are incorrect – Their word order is unnatural and confusing. Meaning: Sentence 1 expresses uncertainty about his reaction if he knew.
27 de mar. de 2025 10:19
G
GuideDogSaint李凯森
1
1 is best. You don’t necessarily need the “it”.
25 de mar. de 2025 13:10
D
Dan
You could argue they are all grammatically correct. You could argue the punctuation is appropriate as it is. Some people would say stronger punctuation is needed, for clarity, especially for phrases 2 & 3; but I would counter that by saying the addition of extra punctuation would produce a potentially undesirable change in tone and potentially even a slight change in context. Personally, if writing for my own website for example, I would probably favour the double comma structure, for slightly increased clarity, since it also remains very open, so has minimal affect on tone: 2. If he knew it, he would do, I don't know what. 3. If he knew it, what he would do, I don't know. But if writing to impress an examiner, or writing for translation into another language, I would probably add much stricter punctuation, using a colon, for much more specific context, and suffer the slight change in tone, like this: 2. If he knew it, he would do: I don't know what. 3. If he knew it: what he would do, I don't know.
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25 de mar. de 2025 11:19
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绑德sings
Thank Mr Dan very very much. You are the best teacher for explanation of not only grammar related to the sentence but also more detailed , reasonable, and instructive interpretation from different grammatical perspectives, which I never learn by grammar book.
25 de mar. de 2025 13:46 · Responder
Dan绑德sings
不客气... I would also use an ellipsis potentially... Especially in a very informal context (like comments here)... Its meaning is somewhere between a full-stop / period, and a colon, but it's usually a stronger separation, and more generic - more open to interpretation... But it's sometimes frowned upon - it's often considered a bit 'sloppy', in formal settings, unless applied in the most traditional sense, like at the end of a page... ps I noticed I made a mistake in the post above: I should have said "minimal effect" instead of "minimal affect" - sorry about that. I should also say, most people favour phrase 1 because it sounds more natural, but it's not the only valid way of speaking - phrases 2 & 3 have different tone - different personality, and there's nothing wrong with that, it's just very rare to see that way of speaking, especially in writing (it's a rare conversational tone, and practically non-existent in literature, but not technically invalid).
25 de mar. de 2025 16:56 · Responder
A
A H
I think the first one sounds the most nature. With the second you need at the very least a comma but ultimately the second sounds clunky and awkward even if you could say it. The third - you could say that but again it is awkward. The third choice has the emphasis in the wrong order - only the first choice has the emphasis in the right order. You need to emphasis that you don't know and that's why what he will do is an unknown. Have a native speaker read the first line for you and you should hear that he/she will naturally emphasis "don't know."
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25 de mar. de 2025 22:23
E
Ednah Khoza
Profesor profesional
If he knew it,I don't know what he will do.
25 de mar. de 2025 18:33
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绑德sings
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