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"There's a thing that I don't know what is" - Is this correct grammar? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by PlogLod@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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How do you say something like that?

"There's a thing for which I don't know what it is" "There's a thing where I don't know what it is" "There's a thing that I don't know what is"

or (the one which I hear people say a lot but sounds awkward:) "There's a thing that/which I don't know what it is"?

To be honest they all sound awkward to me to varying degrees

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[–] redimk@lemmy.dbzer0.com 24 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm not a grammar expert and English is not my first language but I think I used to say this before and I just ended up taking out the "what it is" and changed it for the thing I'm trying to remember:

There's a thing that I don't know the name of

There's a thing that I don't know how to describe

There's a thing whose purpose is a mystery to me

Is that what you're refering to? Sorry if it's not. I don't think any of the first three examples are correct, or at least they sound really weird to me.

Please do correct me if there's an English mayor somewhere though!

[–] locuester@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 year ago

Your solutions are perfect. Very well stated.

a native English speaker