I can't wrap my head about the difference between the two phrases below. A friend of mine, an U.K. national, told me that both are grammatical, but being not a linguist, she can't explain why.
A context is when someone is telling about having fun last holiday, concluding their speech with a phrase (1). To my understanding, only phrase (2) is correct, while (1) sounds like an awkward contraction.
- If it is not a great holiday, then what is?
- If it is not a great holiday, then what is it?
Best Answer
Both sentences sound fine to me, but I'd read them with different emphasis and meaning:
The first sentence is a rhetorical device. The implication is that if you don't consider it a great holiday, then you probably shouldn't consider anything a great holiday--that's how good "it" is. In context, this is the better sentence. (Note that you'd never say the part I put in parentheses--I only added it to help explain.)
The second sentence is reacting in surprise. The speaker thought it was a great holiday, but now they're learning it's something else. They're asking what it is. But this possibility is strange in context, so I might assume the question is rhetorical; if used this way, they're declaring it to be a great holiday by asking what else it could be.