"When" as the subject of a statement?

mrandmrsjohnqsmith · Post by **mrandmrsjohnqsmith** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 1:18 am

My student wrote:
"When they want to learn something is the right time for them to study."

I told her it looked weird because I was pretty sure we never use "when" as the subject of a statement. Anyone care to back me up?

fluffyhamster · Post by **fluffyhamster** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 2:42 am

The sentence looks a bit wierd at first, but isn't it a question of punctuation and a little ellipsis?

When they want to learn something, (it) is (then) the right time for them to study.

If I wanted to make to the point the student seems to be trying to make, I'd say something more like the following instead, however:

Only when they want to learn something is it the right time for them to study,

or,

You can't force people to learn things they aren't interested in/don't care for - you (the teacher) have to make it interesting.

Michael Lewis has a quote in one of his books somewhere from some eminent and famous person, about moulding minds that want to suck up information rather than have it pushed forcefully into them.

woodcutter · Post by **woodcutter** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 6:22 am

I think it's OK to make that kind of inversion, ie

The best time to sleep is when you feel tired and
When you feel tired is the best time to sleep

could both be used, but we usually have a reason if we invert a sentence, so looked at cold and context free it may seem weird.