h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Sorry folks if this is not the right place to post this. (Please indicate where I should be posting this question, if that is the case)

The question is the following:

Is "What shows this picture?" a proper question in the English language?

Is it WRONG?
Totally wrong?
Technically correct but unusual?
Only an imbecile would write it that way?

ANY help on that matter would be great.

Thank you,

Dr. Hell

"What shows this picture?"

If the questioner intends to ask, 'What does this picture show?', then "What shows this picture?" is non-standard English and, out of context, unclear.

I suppose it could be asking what kind of projector is being used to show a movie...

Either way, it is the language of an inexperienced non-native speaker of English.

Wasn't you, wassit?

Rudest Elf has beaten me to it, because it sounds like a mistranslation to me. All the words are correct, but the meaning of them in this sentence sentence could be to imply that a gadget of some type has a picture displayed on it, and therefore you're wanting to find out 'what' the gadget might be - that shows 'a picture'.

Therefore, it is wrong. Unless, that was the meaning of the question?

a simpler grammatical form of the verb 'show' would use:
What does this picture show?

No, it wasn't me... Although I do come up with some pearls every now and then (me no-native speaker). I once seriously used the word "mouses" instead of "mice".

I would never use "hice" for "houses" though...

All kidding aside, the "mistake" came from our son's English teacher. I was trying my best to bring up something in his defense, in the lines of "technically this might be correct", but my wife is (a lot) less forgiving. I think the case is closed now - and who knows what will happen to the teacher...

Thanks folks,

Dr. Hell

"(me no-native speaker)" I would never have guessed it... honestly.

"I would never use "hice" for "houses" though..." No, that's how to pronounce the singular form.

"What show's this picture?" Perhaps referring to a film poster?

Although the use of 's in that example is more of a lazy form of slang.

"What shows this picture?" could also be a question of a lecturer who refers to a pattern as a picture- "Economic collapse, strident nationalism, middle class destruction- this was Germany in the 30s. In our age, what shows this picture?"

But reading it again, it's a bit of a stretch.

"What Ho! This pitcher?"

I would say it is ungrammatical English.

That is the usual mistake Spaniards make.

To make a question out of This picture shows this/Esta foto muestra esto,
we would say ¿Qué muestra esta foto?
a direct and wrong translation into English would be
What shows this picture?

There is a grammatical explanation:

You can say in English What happened?
What is the subject of the sentence, Something happened. But in
What does this picture show? *What* is the object and *picture* is the subject.

Who loves Mary? Who does Mary love?

There´s a basic sort of formula to make questions in English:

Wh-word/auxiliary verb (do, have,be, modals)+ SUBJECT+ main verb+complements

But when the wh-word is the subject of the sentence the auxiliary verb is not used.
:¨:
Paul, correct me if I´m wrong

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/radio/specials/1535_questionanswer/page53.shtml

A link from the experts

I was right

No, the usual mistake Spaniards make is taking on the Royal Navy

at swl.

Look, listillo, the Armada failed because of the awful British weather and the awful chartography they used, surely made by British.

I can see that I'm not needed here anymore, Maria.

One small point, though. The reported question would be: 'he is asking her what the picture shows', and NOT 'he is asking her what does the picture show'... but you know that.