'how we make a car' or 'how do we make a car'? [duplicate]
I don't know the difference between how we make a car and how do we make a car.
I searched on the internet; there are examples for both but I do not understand in which cases they would each be used.
How we make a car is not a sentence; it's a subordinate clause. It's certainly not a question.
How do we make a car is a sentence, and a question (if it has question intonation, i.e. ?)
Both of them come from the structure
- We make a car
Indef_manner
where Indef_manner means some indefinite manner or way (of making a car).Indef_manner is what gets turned into how, the interrogative pronoun for expressions of
manner and means, just as when is the relative/interrogative pronoun for expressions of time.
The difference between the two examples that come from this structure is that
the first sentence has a pronoun in front, but no other change, while
the second sentence has a pronoun in front, and an auxiliary verb before the subject.
Putting the verb before the subject is the mark of a question. So the second one is a question.
The first one is an Embedded Question, or Free Relative, which is a type of complement clause.
Embedded questions do not invert auxiliary verbs with the subject.
-
How can they make this car so ugly?
(full sentence; question; auxiliary verb can precedes subject they) -
I don't know how they can make this car so ugly.
(embedded question object complement of know; subject they precedes auxiliary verb can)
When an interrogative pronoun is the subject of a sentence, do is not required. As interrogative pronouns normally need to be at the start of the sentence, subject–verb inversion doesn’t happen either.
He makes the car. (Statement; “he” is the subject)
Who makes the car? (Question: “who” is the subject)
When the question does not have an interrogative pronoun as the subject, do or another modal verb is required. That verb precedes its subject.
How do we make the car? (“We” is the subject and “how” is an interrogative adverb)