 Forming Questions
A Japanese student had a question for me that I hope some people can help out with. Here's the question:
1) How many percent of Japanese are Christians? -> Can you guess how many percent of Japanese are Christians?
2) Where is the nearest station? -> Do you know where the nearest station is?
3) How much was the medical bill? -> Can you guess how much the medical bill was?
In (2) and (3), when converting the first question to the second kind of question, the verb "is" and "was" changes its place from the middle of the sentence to the end. Sentence (1) is different. The "are" is still before "Christians".
My student actually thought that based on her understanding of (2) and (3) that "How many percent of Japanese are Christians?" would be converted to "Can you guess how many percent of Japanese Christians are?".
Of course this is wrong, but I can't explain why it is to her. I see her logic, but what's the explanation?
Thanks. |