I don't know why, but it seems to me that Bob would sound a bit strange if he said, "Why is it that you have to get going?" in that situation. 9 1) Please tell me why is it like that. [grammatically incorrect unless the punctuation is changed.

Understanding the Context

Please tell me: Why is it like that? The question: "Why is [etc.]" is a question form in English: Why is the sky blue? Why is it that children require so much attention? Why is it [or some thing] like that?

Key Insights

Why the voiced /z/ won out over the voiceless /s/ is not clear to me. Modern French mostly uses /gz/, as in xénophobie, but I don't know the history of how the modern French pronunciation of word-initial x became established. Why have a letter in a word when it’s silent in pronunciation, like the b in debt? Can anyone please clarify my uncertainty here?