Function of 'what' in this sentence

Members help members on grammar, vocab, pronunciation...

Moderator: EC

Post Reply
User avatar
matsukiwi
Member
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue May 24, 2016 12:08 am
Status: Teacher of English

Function of 'what' in this sentence

Post by matsukiwi »

There may be an obvious answer to this question, but thanks for helping out. One of my students asked me what 'what' means in the following sentence:

This is what I do on the weekend.

What functions does 'what' have in this sentence?

Cheers!
knowable
Member
Posts: 41
Joined: Thu Feb 18, 2016 5:31 pm
Status: Teacher of English

Re: Function of 'what' in this sentence

Post by knowable »

I would say it is functioning as a pronoun.

Let us say someone had asked:
What is it you do on weekend? Or, what do you do on weekends?

Then the person answers ‘this is what I do on weekends’. Or ‘this is it’.

In the question ‘What’ is functioning as a pronoun. So is ‘It’ in the answer.

Follow the link below and see if the post on Wh-words helps to explains further.

http://findingsynonyms.blogspot.com/201 ... words.html
Post Reply