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Is it correct to use question words in declarative senteces?



Some examples of what I mean:



  • "What the eggs are for, is to prepare the cake."

  • "What my husband is, is a nice guy."

  • "What a bird is, is a kind of animal."

  • "Where the station is, is close to the Centre"


I am not sure if this is something I am just misusing from the Spanish.



Answer



These are examples of a kind of sentence called a Wh-Cleft (aka Pseudocleft) construction.
They are constructed from a simpler sentence and mean the same thing. E.g,




  • I want him to trim the hedge. =Wh-Cleft=> What I want him to do is (to) trim the hedge.




  • He told me (that) it was raining. =Wh-Cleft=> What he told me was (that) it was raining.




  • Bill's wearing the/a white sweater. =Wh-Cleft=> What Bill's wearing is the/a white sweater.




Wh-Clefts are very complicated and have many arbitrary restrictions. For instance, cleft sentences insert a form of be as a fulcrum between the two cloven pieces, and therefore they are reversible around that fulcrum of cleavage:


The/A white sweater is what Bill's wearing.


They are part of a family of Cleft constructions, like the It-Cleft:



  • Bill's wearing the/a white sweater. =It-Cleft=> It's the/a white sweater (that) Bill's wearing.

  • Bill's wearing the/a white sweater. =It-Cleft=> It's Bill (that's/who's) wearing the/a white sweater.


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