Talk:show what one is made of

RFM discussion: August–November 2022
Merge with. I don't know which entry should be kept. PUC – 19:15, 28 August 2022 (UTC)
 * A general form of the expression is show [Y] what [X] is made of where Y is usually an audience. But what [X] is made of appears fairly often without show. ("Let's see what he/they/'the team'/Boston is/are made of"). I think that one is not fully justified here. X can be plural or a collective noun a competitive or personified animal or even thing (eg, race car).
 * As to our competitors:
 * MW Online has what someone is made of.
 * Cambridge Advanced Learner's has what somebody is made of.
 * I'd opt for what someone is made of, but show that someone can be plural or collective or something that is personified. DCDuring (talk) 22:12, 28 August 2022 (UTC)


 * I agree, show is not essential, and once show is removed, I don't know that "what one is made of" is "reflexive" per se (which is when to use "one's"), so I think merging to what someone is made of may be best. I see we have where someone is coming from, for example. But I know examples can be found for either approach, since it's tricky to decide which pronoun is right and different contributors land on different ideas: I see we also have where one lives (perhaps we should move it too to use someone?)... - -sche (discuss) 02:24, 29 August 2022 (UTC)
 * Right. I'd move where one lives to where someone lives, too. I'll look for other candidates. DCDuring (talk) 14:43, 29 August 2022 (UTC)
 * This search finds 54 entries with 'wh' words followed by 'one'. This search finds 26 entries with 'how' followed by 'one'. Some entries need to be evaluated for whether the verb is essential to the idiom. Some may be candidates for RfV or RfD. Some are inflected forms that may not be attestable and may not make semantic sense. Some include what are probably extraneous, though common, adverbs like right and just. Lots to clean up. DCDuring (talk) 14:59, 29 August 2022 (UTC)


 * Merged (not by me) GreyishWorm (talk) 00:03, 10 November 2022 (UTC)