Nhi83  +  517911 Fri, 23 May 08 03:05 PM  Is the sentence below understandable and grammatically correct? Thank you in advance for your help. "The merchants asked if the City could use the City’s attorney to help them with applying for it. They don't have money to hire a private attorney work on it." Nhi83 Joined on Mon, May 19 2008 New Member 30

	Mister Micawber  +  517922 Fri, 23 May 08 03:17 PM . It is unclear partly because there is missing context, but: The merchants asked the City if they could use the City’s attorney to help them apply for [the ??]. They don't have money to hire a private attorney to work on it. Mister Micawber Joined on Wed, Aug 4 2004 Yokohama Veteran Member 30,789 'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master-- that's all.'

	Yankee  +  517923 Fri, 23 May 08 03:17 PM Nhi83 “"The merchants asked if the City could use the City’s attorney to help them with applying for it. They don't have money to hire a private attorney work on it."” I'd suggest this: "Since the merchants didn't/don't have money to hire a private attorney, asked the city if they could use the city’s attorney for help with the application."   Yankee Joined on Sat, Apr 15 2006 Connecticut, USA Veteran Member 6,499 Amy "You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus." - Mark Twain

	RayH  +  517925 Fri, 23 May 08 03:18 PM "The merchants asked if the City could use the city’s attorney to help them with applying for it. They don't have the money to hire a private attorney to work on it." I'm not sure if "city attorney" should be capitalized or not but whichever it is the capitalization should apply to both words. RayH Joined on Sat, Mar 22 2008 Contributing Member 1,555 Native speaker of U. S. English. Not a grammar expert.