Guide Exercises

Introduction

This page covers two small, distinctly literary constructions that share a family resemblance: both let you pile up or spotlight information in a way that ordinary sentence order doesn't easily allow, and both carry a slightly exasperated, wondering, or overwhelmed tone.

"What with the rain, the traffic, and a flat tire, we arrived two hours late" packs several contributing causes into one compact opening. "How he manages it, I really don't know" takes an entire question and moves it to the front of the sentence, purely so the speaker's bewilderment about it can land with more weight. Neither structure is common in plain, neutral writing — both belong to that slightly performative register where a speaker wants their reaction to a pile-up of circumstances, or their genuine puzzlement, to be felt as much as understood.

The Core Forms

Pattern 1 — "What with" + noun phrase(s) — cumulative cause

Introduces one or more contributing factors, usually building toward an outcome that's inconvenient, chaotic, or overwhelming
What with the rain and the traffic, we arrived an hour late.
What with the kids, work, and the renovation, I haven't had a moment to myself all month.
What with one thing and another, I never got around to calling her back. (a fixed, common phrase for an unspecified pile-up of small reasons)

"What with" can also introduce a gerund phrase, complete with its own subject:

What with him constantly interrupting and her refusing to listen, the meeting went nowhere.

Pattern 2 — Fronted wh-clause + comment on not knowing/understanding

An entire indirect question is moved to the front of the sentence, followed by a short comment expressing the speaker's lack of knowledge, certainty, or understanding about it
How he manages it, I really don't know.
Why she said that, nobody can explain.
What he sees in that job, I can't imagine.
Where they found the money for all this, I have no idea.

The Real Rule: Why This Doesn't Generalize

1

"What with" is followed by noun phrases or gerund phrases, never by a full independent clause with its own finite verb standing alone. "What with it rained all week" doesn't work; you need either a simple noun phrase ("what with the rain") or a gerund construction ("what with it raining all week").

2

"What with" almost always builds toward a negative, inconvenient, or at least mildly chaotic outcome. It's not a neutral way to list reasons for something pleasant — using it for a happy result ("What with the sunshine and the good company, it was a perfect day") is possible but noticeably rarer and can sound slightly odd, because the phrase carries a built-in expectation of things piling up against you, not in your favor.

3

The fronted wh-clause in Pattern 2 keeps completely ordinary, non-inverted word order internally — it's built exactly like an indirect question, just moved to the front of the sentence for emphasis. "How does he manage it, I don't know" wrongly keeps the inversion that only belongs in a direct question; once it's functioning as an embedded clause here, that inversion has to disappear: "How he manages it, I don't know."

4

Pattern 2 needs a short comment clause specifically expressing ignorance, bewilderment, or inability to explain — I don't know, I have no idea, nobody knows, I can't imagine, is beyond me, nobody can explain. Swapping in an ordinary factual comment breaks the whole effect: "How he manages it, he is very organized" doesn't fit the pattern at all, because the second clause isn't expressing any uncertainty about the first.

5

Both patterns are almost entirely fronting/positioning devices — removing the fronting and reordering the sentence in the ordinary way ("I don't know how he manages it") produces a perfectly normal, grammatical sentence with the same basic meaning; what's lost is only the emphasis and slightly rhetorical flavor that fronting adds.

Common Errors

Error 1 — Following "what with" with a bare finite clause.

✗ What with it rained the whole week, the festival was cancelled.
✓ What with it raining the whole week, the festival was cancelled. (or: What with the rain all week...)

Error 2 — Keeping subject-auxiliary inversion in the fronted wh-clause.

✗ How does she do it, I'll never understand.
✓ How she does it, I'll never understand.

Error 3 — Pairing the fronted wh-clause with a comment that isn't about ignorance or bewilderment.

✗ Why he left so early, he had an important appointment.
✓ He left early because he had an important appointment. (state the explanation in plain order instead)

Error 4 — Using "what with" for a single, isolated cause.

Not ungrammatical, but reads oddly: What with the rain, I brought an umbrella. — "because of" or "given" fits a single reason far more naturally.

Error 5 — Treating "what with one thing and another" as a variable phrase.

✗ What with one thing and the other... / What with this and that thing...
✓ What with one thing and another... (completely fixed)

Register and Usage

Both patterns sit in a similar space: informal-to-neutral spoken English and lively, conversational written English (personal essays, narrative journalism, informal storytelling), rather than strictly formal registers like legal writing or academic prose. "What with" turns up constantly in spoken excuses and explanations for why something didn't go as planned. The fronted wh-clause pattern has a slightly more literary, reflective flavor — you'll meet it in personal narrative and thoughtful commentary more than in casual small talk, though it's understood everywhere.

Don't Confuse This With: Ordinary Indirect Questions

Pattern 2 is not a new grammatical structure in its own right — it's built entirely out of the ordinary indirect question you may already know, just moved to the front of the sentence. "I don't know how he manages it" and "How he manages it, I don't know" describe exactly the same underlying fact; the second version simply spotlights the question itself before delivering the speaker's reaction to it. If you can already build a correct indirect question, you already have everything you need for this pattern — the only new skill here is choosing to front it for effect.

Exercises

EXERCISE:

Exercise 1 — Transformation

Rewrite each sentence using the pattern indicated in brackets.

1. "Because of the delay, the crowd, and the lost tickets, we missed the first half of the concert." [what with] →
2. "I have no idea how she balances three jobs at once." [fronted wh-clause] →
3. "Because the printer broke, the internet went down, and the coffee machine stopped working, it was a terrible morning at the office." [what with] →
4. "Nobody understands why he suddenly quit such a good job." [fronted wh-clause] →
5. "Because the traffic was heavy and there was a diversion, the journey took twice as long as usual." [what with] →
6. "I can't imagine what she sees in that apartment." [fronted wh-clause] →
7. "For various small reasons, I never finished reading the book." [what with one thing and another] →
8. "Nobody can explain where all the money went." [fronted wh-clause] →