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I want to ask myself what kind of job I'm gonna do. I want to know which one should be ok:

  1. What job should I have?
  2. What job I should have?

Thanks,

AGamePlayer
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  • Related: http://ell.stackexchange.com/a/14156/3281. Here is a list of [auxiliary verbs you can find on Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auxiliary_verb): be (am, are, is, was, were, being, been), can, could, dare, do (does, did), have (has, had, having), may, might, must, need, ought, shall, should, will, would. – Damkerng T. Jun 21 '14 at 11:13
  • This is addressed at ["How it works?" vs. "How does it work?"](http://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/17778/how-it-works-vs-how-does-it-work). (1) is a question; (2) is a free relative clause which acts as a nominal; it is not a complete sentence, and it should not have a question mark. – StoneyB on hiatus Jun 21 '14 at 13:11

2 Answers2

1

The word order in English is usually subject - verb - object, with an auxiliary verb ("should") before the subject ("I") in questions: interrogative - auxiliary verb - subject - main verb - object. However, with "wh-fronting", you have an inversion of the word order. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a good site explaining that, and the Wikipedia article is difficult to understand... Anyway, number 1 is correct.

I have a job.
Do I have a job?
Should I have a job?
What job should I have?

Christian
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1

If it is a direct question , then the first sentence is correct: What job should I have?". If it is an indirect question like,"I I want to ask myself what job I shoud have?",the second option is correct. An indirect sentence the verb is in the affirmative. Another example: direct question= "What did yoy make for dinner?" indirect question= Bob asked me what I had made for dinner.

Vic
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