Asked by rfvv

Posted by rfvv on Tuesday, November 26, 2013 at 6:56am.


a statement about what will happen in the future

(What is the part of speech of 'what'? Is 'what' an interrogative pronoun or a relative pronoun?)
English - Writeacher, Tuesday, November 26, 2013 at 7:58am
In this (not a complete sentence yet!), "what" is an interrogative pronoun. It's introducing an indirect question.
English - rfvv, Tuesday, November 26, 2013 at 8:32am
Thank you.


(What about this one? Is #1 the same as #2?)
English - Writeacher, Tuesday, November 21. a statement about what will happen in the future

2. a statement about the things which will happen in the future 6, 2013 at 10:03am
Both mean the same thing, except that 1 has that indirect question in it introduced by "what," while 2 has a relative clause introduced by "which."
==================================
Thank you for your help.

1. a statement about what will happen in the future

2. a statement about the things which will happen in the future

(In Sentence 2, 'the things which' can be changed into 'what,' which is a relative pronoun. So 'what' in sentence 1 can be a relative pronoun, which mean 'the things which'? What do you think about this opinion?)
Answered by Writeacher
When you change "the things which" into "what," you have turned a relative clause into an indirect question.

Direct question ~~> What will happen in the future?
Indirect question ~~> about what will happen in the future?

I've never seen "what" listed as a relative pronoun.

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/645/01/

http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/pronouns-interrogative.htm