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M.T.
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Posts: 560
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1.Do you know who he is? (correct)
2.Do you know who is he? (awkward or wrong)
3.Do you know which is the biggest coffee producing country?

If 3 is correct, why doesn't the inversion occur as in sentence 1?
Is it because the subject is rather long?

Apple
Rachel, Moderator
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Posts: 15236
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quote:
1.Do you know who he is? (correct)
2.Do you know who is he? (awkward or wrong)
3.Do you know which is the biggest coffee producing country?

Yes, that's right, Apple.

You can test this in two ways:

1) If the subject is one word or two words, the pattern is the same as in 1):

  • Do you know which (country/one) it is?

    2) The sentence with the usual word order in noun clauses is also correct:

  • Do you know which the biggest coffee-producing country in the world is?

    This second way does seem a bit heavy, though, and often the first way is used instead.
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