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G.Determinism

Senior Member
Persian
Greetings,

"His problems are deeply rooted in his childhood experiences."

If I wanted to change this sentence into an interrogative one using the word "where", how should it be done?

"Where are his problems rooted (in)?" ??


Thanks
Sticking as closely to this expression as possible, you might say, "Where lies the root of his problem?" However, this sounds formal/poetic and not colloquial. A better expression, which keeps the metaphor, would be, "Where do his problems stem from?" This is something a person might say in normal speech.
Thanks a lot, anthox.

So we cannot use the exact same words as those used in the sentence to put it into an interrogative one, right? What about the one I proposed?


Thanks
Your proposal doesn't work. I suppose you could say "In what are his problems deeply rooted?" The answer being "In his childhood experiences." Experiences are not a location so we can't use where.

"In what are his problems deeply rooted?" doesn't sound very natural in English. Anthox gave you some alternatives that sound more natural.
Hmm. The more I think about it, I suppose it is possible to say, "Where are his problems rooted?" (without "in"). It doesn't sound bad or wrong. I think it would just be more common to ask where they "stem from."
Thanks a lot, James and anthox.

"Experiences are not a location so we can't use where."
Dear James, Can't we really use "where" for things other than locations? I guess we can at least do it figuratively, Can't we? "That's where you're wrong"

Thanks
It's not a general rule, G. Determinism. English would be so much simpler if there were dependable rules. 👁 Smile :)


I'm saying that in this context his experiences are not a "where", in my opinion.
Thanks a lot, James, anthox and RedwoodGrove and Happy Holidays. I hope 2016 is a good one.
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