Why do we need to use "what" instead of "that" in this sentence?
Why do we need to use "what" instead of "that" in this sentence?
"You will never believe what happened!"
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Answers · 3
2
Like Michael Chambers indicates, "what" is acting as a pronoun for whatever thing happened. We don't know what happened yet because the speaker hasn't told us. "what" = the Unknown thing
If you were to use "that": "You will never believe that happened!", "that" is acting as a pronoun for an action we already know about. that (in this case) = the Known thing
1
"what" = "the thing that".
You'll never believe a thing that the speaker is just about to be specify.
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