You did what?/You've been to where?

[Alexey86]

Hello! Sometimes I can hear English speakers say, "You did what?" instead of "What did you do?" to emphasize their surprise. I wonder, can I use the affirmative form in other kinds of questions? For example,


1) - I did it because of you.
- You did it because of who?


2) - I did it because you asked me.
- You did it why?


3a) - I've been to Pyongyang twice.
- You've been to where?

3b) - Last year I was in Pyongyang.
- You was last year where?


4a) - I arrived this morning?
- You arrived when?

4b) - I arrived in Paris this morning.
- You arrived in Paris when?


5) - I go to Paris every day.
- You go to Paris how often?


6) - I've been living in Paris for 20 years.
- You've been living in Paris for how long?

To me, the longer the sentence is, the less natural it sounds as a question. Are there any rules that govern the usage of affirmative questions?

 

[emsr2d2]

Hello! Sometimes I [STRIKE]can[/STRIKE] hear English speakers say, "You did what?" instead of "What did you do?" to emphasize their surprise. [STRIKE]I wonder,[/STRIKE] Can I use the affirmative form in other kinds of questions? For example:


1) - I did it because of you.
- You did it because of who? :tick:


2) - I did it because you asked me.
- You did it why? OK, but not likely.


3a) - I've been to Pyongyang twice.
- You've been [to] where? :tick:

3b) - Last year I was in Pyongyang.
- You was last year where? :cross:
Last year you were where?


4a) - I arrived this morning?
- You arrived when? :tick:

4b) - I arrived in Paris this morning.
- You arrived in Paris when? :tick:


5) - I go to Paris every day.
- You go to Paris how often? :tick:


6) - I've been living in Paris for 20 years.
- You've been living in Paris for how long? :tick:

To me, the longer the sentence is, the less natural it sounds as a question. Are there any rules that govern the usage of affirmative questions?

See above for my notes, comments and corrections. I would say the construction can be used to express surprise or to request clarification or repetition.

 

[Alexey86]

Does the length of a sentence matter?

 

[teechar]

- You did it why?

That doesn't work for me.

 

[Alexey86]

That doesn't work for me.

Maybe "You did it because of what?" would work?

 

[teechar]

Maybe "You did it because of what?!" would work.

Yes, that can work.

 

[Alexey86]

Teechar, I changed "may be" to "maybe" just before your reply.

 

[teechar]

Teechar, I changed "may be" to "maybe" just before you posted your reply.

Noted. Well done.

 

[Alexey86]

You've also changed "?" to a full stop in my comment. Would you explain to me why you did this, since this is directly related to the topic?

 

[teechar]

What you wrote is not an interrogative statement.
Maybe X would work.
Thus, it should not end with a question mark.

 

[Alexey86]

I meant it as a question. How does it differ from the affirmative questions above?

 

[teechar]

It doesn't express surprise.

 

[Alexey86]

It doesn't express surprise.

Because it's an interrogative suggestion. I've found a couple of discussions (https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/maybe-you-would-like-to-be-an-architect.3013511/ and https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/a-question-with-maybe.2014805/) in which English speakers allow for the possibility that such sentences could be questions.

 

[teechar]

I don't subscribe to that "school of grammar", I'm afraid! English has several other avenues for expressing such sentences in the interrogative case grammatically.

[STRIKE]Maybe[/STRIKE]Might/can/could/would/does/will "You did it because of what?" [STRIKE]would[/STRIKE] work?

 

[Alexey86]

I don't subscribe to that "school of grammar", I'm afraid!

I would appreciate it if someone else would give their opinion.

 

[jutfrank]

I would appreciate it if someone else would give their opinion.

I'm far more relaxed about using declarative word order to ask questions than some other members of this forum. It's not a question of grammar so much as appropriacy of style. How we speak in casual informal speech is not necessarily the same as how we write on an English language forum like this.

I agree with teechar that an expression such as those in post #14 would have been much more suitable for your question.

 

[teechar]

How we speak in casual informal speech is not necessarily the same as how we write on an English language forum like this.

True, and often what we and others say in casual conversation is not strictly grammatical, but there are limits. I should clarify also that learners may well come across sentences like the one I complained about and edited in post #14, but does that make them right, or does it mean learners should start using them? Not in my opinion.

 

[Alexey86]

jutfrank said,
It's not a question of grammar so much as appropriacy of style.

But it's also a matter of meaning. If I had used subject-verb inversion, my sentence wouldn't have conveyed the intended meaning of an interrogative suggestion.
By the way, why did you write "declarative word order" without any article?

 

[jutfrank]

But it's also a matter of meaning. If I had used subject-verb inversion, my sentence wouldn't have conveyed the intended meaning of an interrogative suggestion.

I'm not completely sure I understand your point. Could you explain a bit more?

By the way, why did you write "declarative word order" without any article?

There was no need for an article. I used word order uncountably, which is how it's normally used.

 

[Alexey86]

jutfrunk said,
Could you explain a bit more?

"Maybe..." can be pronounced with declarative or interrogative intonation. When I was writing it sounded interrogatively in my mind, that's why I put "?" at the end. But a proper interrogative form would've implied that I didn't have (or hadn't had?) any clue if my variant was correct, which wasn't the case. So, it wasn't a real question, but a suggestion mixed with doubt. I think part of the problem is that in Russian we can turn any declarative phrase into a question just by means of intonation.

I used word order uncountably, which is how it's normally used.

So, we can't say that declarative and interrogative sentences have different word orders. (This sentence sounds very interrogatively to me, so it's hard for me not to put a question mark at the end.)