Which one is correct between:
"What's he hiding?"
and:
"What he's hiding?"
I heard the first one from a film but not sure if it's correct.
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Since when do film characters use formal English that sounds grammatical, or is grammatically sound? – J.R. May 12 '18 at 11:54
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1What're are you saying? [Is that] What you're saying? Please note: It is practically impossible to understand real dialogue until you learn the basic forms. After that, you will understand dialogue better. – Lambie May 12 '18 at 13:51
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1Possible duplicate of "Do you know where's Linda?" vs "Do you know where Linda is?" – FumbleFingers May 12 '18 at 14:01
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This is probably a duplicate, but not of that question. It deals with subordinate interrogatives, while this deals with a main clause interrogative. – May 30 '18 at 17:07
2 Answers
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In English, when forming questions that begin with special words like what, how, when etc. (called question words), the auxiliary verb or any of the several forms of the to be verb should necessarily always precede the subject. In fact, breaking this rule makes your questions sound very unnatural. So, that's why only the first sentence is grammatical:
What's he hiding?
The other sentence would be grammatical if you split it into two separate sentences like this:
What? He's hiding?
As I said above, the only time the auxiliary verb or any of the several forms of the verb to be are placed before the subject is when you begin your question with a question word. In all other cases, it's entirely possible to leave the grammar completely untouched and instead use a rising intonation to indicate to your listener that what you're asking is a question.
Michael Rybkin
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The question meaning of an utterance is normally signaled by rising intonation in speech, and punctuation in writing; its (the utterance's) syntax needn't necessarily be interrogative. – May 12 '18 at 13:01
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Both can be correct in the proper context.
What's he hiding? Let's find out.
and
A: What do we want to find?
B: (we want to find) What he's hiding.
The first is short for the complete sentence what is he hiding, and the second is an ellipsis of a sentence that uses the subordinate clause what he is hiding.
Andrew
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But your second example is not a question. I thought the OP was asking about the difference between What's he hiding? and What he's hiding? To me, both appear to be questions. Also notice that they both begin with a capital letter. – Michael Rybkin May 12 '18 at 15:45
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