One: What did you do wrong?
Two: What was the thing you did wrong?
Three: What did you do that was wrong?
2006-08-16 05:58:53 · 41 answers · asked by donotmisstony 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
One and Three are perfect. One is more common; Three suggests that the asker doesn't think you really did anything wrong.
Two could be ok, for example if you've mentioned that you did only one thing wrong out of a series of things, but it had disastrous results. Then the person would want to know what that thing was.
I can think of some funny examples: What was the thing you did wrong that made you fail the interview? Oh, I blew my nose of the guy's tie. Or what was the thing you did wrong that made the cake taste bad? Oh, I mixed up the sugar and the salt.
Edit: I just thumbs-downed the people who said, wrongly, that it should be "wrongly". "Wrong" can be either an adjective or an adverb (or a noun or a verb, for that matter), "Wrongly" is only required in the sense I just used it, describing the verb itself.
"Thumbs-downed," on the other hand, is not a real word.
Edit again: OK I should clarify about "wrong" vs. "wrongly". In One and Two, "wrong" is the WAY you did something; that is, you did it incorrectly. If you replaced those "wrongs" with "wrongly"s, the sentences would instead mean that you shouldn't have done that thing at all--it was wrong to have done it.
On the other hand, as written, Three doesn't mean that you did that thing incorrectly, but that it was wrong for you to have done it at all. Wrong is an adjective here, which means it's modifying the noun phrase "what you did", while in the others it's an adverb modifying "do".
2006-08-16 06:10:36 · answer #1 · answered by Goddess of Grammar 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
1 and 3 is correct and 2 is wrong. 2 does not make sense
2006-08-16 06:03:31 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Yes but sentence number 1 and 3 sound the best to me.
2006-08-16 06:04:22 · answer #3 · answered by ♥Sapphira♥ 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes
2006-08-16 06:03:04 · answer #4 · answered by snmemerald99 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
All three are correct but the first one sounds better.
2006-08-16 06:03:35 · answer #5 · answered by keepingitreal 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
One: What did you do wrong?
This one seems to be correct.
Reply: Something wrong is expected.
Two: What was the thing you did wrong?
This one also seems to be correct.
Reply: Something specific which was wrongly done.
Three: What did you do that was wrong?
This one should be according to me:
What wrong did you do?
2006-08-16 06:13:50 · answer #6 · answered by Meemee 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think # 1 sounds the most correct, but I don't think any of them are wrong.
2006-08-16 06:04:24 · answer #7 · answered by Badkitty 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
One & Three are perfectly correct.
Two needs a slight alteration to make it correct. It should read:
"What was it that you did wrong?"
2006-08-16 11:19:09 · answer #8 · answered by manorris3265 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Just glossing over I would accept all 3. However, if I were to be called on it I would feel more comfortable with numbers 1 & 3.
2006-08-16 06:07:32 · answer #9 · answered by somebrowning 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes, but 2 and 3 sound a bit clumsy.
2006-08-16 06:04:29 · answer #10 · answered by cobra 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋