Learn English – Should I ask “At what time I should come” or “At what time should I come”

sentence-construction

Which one is correct among these two sentences

  1. At what I should come tomorrow.
  2. At what time should I come tomorrow?

According to me I think first sentence is correct. Can anyone please tell whether my option is correct or wrong and why?

Best Answer

At what I should come tomorrow.

I don't know how you arrived at this sentence, but it is wrong.

You could just say "I should come tomorrow." but as you are looking for a time you wouldn't get much of a response because it is not a question.

"Should I come tomorrow?" gets you a step closer and gives you an answer either "yes" or "no".

Now, "At what" is a verb phrase, and it needs a direct object. In your first sentence, you are missing the direct object. In your second construction the word "time" is your direct object.

Essentially you want to ask yourself "At what, what?" meaning, what am I looking for? In this case (since it's a question) What so I want someone to respond with? Do I want them to respond with a place, a time, or something else? Because you want them to respond with a time you need to indicate that you are looking for a time as an answer.

In your first construction there is no indication that you want a time. "At what what?" - there is nothing. "I should come tomorrow" (I believe) is a prepositional phrase, which modifies "At what". Since there is no other words in the sentence "At what" is left hanging and you don't know what is being asked for. So you need the word "time" there so that you have a complete sentence.

So your correct answer is:

At what time should I come tomorrow?

However most people would say:

What time should I come tomorrow?

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