What's the difference?

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Anonymous

#128076 Thu, 18 Aug 05 06:40 AM

Hello. I hope you can help me. Can you tell me what the difference is between these expressions?

"Keep silent, boys", said the teacher.

"Keep silent, boys", the teacher said.

Thank you very much.

Anonymous

Expressions

TimKowal

#128084 Thu, 18 Aug 05 07:23 AM

Absolutely nothing, except what you see and hear when you read it. It would simply be a stylistic choice. Grammatically they are tautological (identical).
Tim

TimKowal

Joined on Sun, Aug 14 2005

Orange, CA

New Member (29)

yunus

#128099 Thu, 18 Aug 05 08:15 AM

both are true. You can say or write what you want

yunus

Joined on Sun, Jan 30 2005

İstanbul

Full Member (205)

istanbul

Mister Micawber

#128111 Thu, 18 Aug 05 09:25 AM

With pronouns, however, the inverted form sounds stilted and old-fashioned, and is seldom used nowadays:

(??) 'Keep silent boys,' said I / you / he / they / we.

Mister Micawber

Joined on Wed, Aug 4 2004

Yokohama

Veteran Member (22,688)

'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master-- that's all.'

Nouns, Pronouns