Hi!

Can anyone explain the reason behind “exactly” being where it is in the following sentence?:

“How many spoons of sugar exactly would you like in your coffee”

Shouldn’t it be: “Exactly how many spoons of sugar would you like in your coffee”

or perhaps

“How many spoons of sugar would you like in your coffee exactly”

See a translation

@nisreen4yu

Thanks! But why adverbs in general tend to jump around like that?

@nisreen4yu

Thank you!

@twoboots

Nothing’s ever simple 😂. I surfed the web and found numerous examples suggesting some sort of a pattern here. As in:

I. How many kilometres exactly have you driven today?

I have driven exactly 41 kilometres today

Or

What’s wrong with her? She wouldn’t even utter a word today.

I don’t know exactly what’s wrong with her, but we need to give her some time and space to reflect on her current condition.

However, I also found this:

- For how much, exactly?

- That will be £15 exactly, please.

To me, putting exactly at the end of the sentence emphasises a surprise reaction, as if the one asking the question has just heard an enormously ridiculous price.