Which witch is which?

[anstin]

From my "Grammar for English Language Teachers":
It is often difficult to see what words are adverbs and what words are not.

What? Am I crazy, or is that just stupid wrong?

Comments

[berryfae]

oh, it is stupid! :D

[_hjarta]

Yes, that is very wrong!

[grokfairy]

coming from a native english speaker who can actually use the language correctly (the last of a dying breed...)

it should be which.

in general, which is used when there is a known set of things, and what is used when it's more general. it's a semantic difference and not a syntactic one, so i'll probably be able to explain it in linguistic terms after next semester. :P

[anstin]

Could it be a question of British vs. American English? The book is (supposedly) written by Brits.

[summerless_year]

The only situation in which I'd say what, is in the case of something unknown. Like, it's hard to tell what is what. In this case, I'd say which.

I'm mostly a descriptive, not prescriptive type, but even descriptively, I'd say that nearly everyone say which, not what in that situation.

hope you find which you're looking for (kidding!!!)

[anstin]

I'm just shocked that they would write like that in a book intended for English Teacher. Unless it's a hidden test ;)

[mobus]

Bwhahahah!