Relative Clauses

Question

Hi everyone! Could anyone help me with this? In this sentence, "The place where to find the missing parts is unknown." It has caused a series of misunderstanding among my classmates. some said the sentence is correct while the others said it is wrong.

Question 1. Is the sentence correct?

Question 2. If it is, is "where to find the missing parts", a relative clause? Syntactically speaking, I would say it is not, since a clause always has a subject and a verb. In the statement, I assume that the infinitive "to find" is not a verb.

Question 3. If it's not a relative clause, what is it then? Sentence fragment, adjective phrase or infinitive phrase introduced by "where"?

I appreciate it very much if someone can clarify my doubt on this. Thanks.

Enoon · Accepted Answer

1. No.

2. That infinitive clause is an error, so it can't be analyzed. I found a website that addresses this type of error ( https://sites.google.com/site/agrammaroferrors/1-1-the-noun-phrase/1-10/1-10-2-1 ). It states the following "rule": "An infinitive clause introduced by a wh- word cannot be attached directly to the antecedent noun." The noun in question in your sentence is "place". That "place where to find" is not English.

3. See 2.

AlpheccaStars · Answer

These are OK, but yours, as enoon has replied, is an incorrect combination of the two correct versions.

The place where one can find the missing parts is unknown.
The place to find the missing parts is unknown.

Also
I don't know where to find the missing parts.

Relative Clauses

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