ESL General English Grammar Questions

Re: My Direct Speech to Put into Indirect

Mister Micawber — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 06:02:42 GMT

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We are not a reported-speech factory, Anon. Please try yourself.

Re: My Direct Speech to Put into Indirect

Anonymous — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 05:35:07 GMT

"we can have peace in the world if all people-from the educated to illiterate,from the rich to poor-are able to expand their horizons in this way,"he concluded.

Re: My Direct Speech to Put into Indirect

SpoonfedBaby — Tue, 30 Aug 2005 18:27:23 GMT

Clive wrote:

As they said when I registered her at the gym, the fact was that the gym had this policy that (or by which/under which) she would be reimbursed if she were not to like it. (or if she didn't like it - a more common way to say it)

How English Works wrote:

future in the past:
When we are talking about the past, we often want to say that something was still in the future at that time. To express this idea, we can use the past progressive (was â¦ing), was going to â¦, would, or was to.
As the Duchess had said, the fact that Emily was marrying a general was a very adequate excuse for such ceremony at the wedding.

Hello Clive,

Once again, thanks for your corrections. I was so sure about myself.

I made the mistake of trying to rewrite my sentence following the pattern of âfuture in the past sentenceâ. I should have followed the pattern of the conditional sentence type 2.

â¦she would be reimbursed (conditional passive) if she were (unreal past tense âsubjunctiveâ) not to like it.

Re: My Direct Speech to Put into Indirect

Clive — Tue, 30 Aug 2005 15:00:13 GMT

Hi again,

As they said when I registered her at the gym, the fact that the gym had this policy she would be reimbursed if she was to not like it.

I'd say

As they said when I registered her at the gym, the fact was that the gym had this policy that (or by which/under which) she would be reimbursed if she were not to like it. (or if she didn't like it - a more common way to say it)

Despite these corrections, I think your basic understanding of how to say this in this way is OK.

Best wishes, Clive

Re: My Direct Speech to Put into Indirect

SpoonfedBaby — Tue, 30 Aug 2005 13:41:07 GMT

Hello everybody,

I'm working on the rules of the reported speech and the ones on the future in the past.

A practical English Grammar wrote:

reported speech:
He said, âAnn will be in Paris on Monday.â >>> He said that Ann would be in Paris on Monday. (Future >>> Conditional)
âI never eat meat,â he explained >>> He explained that he never ate meat. (Present simple >>> past simple)

How English Works wrote:

future in the past:
When we are talking about the past, we often want to say that something was still in the future at that time. To express this idea, we can use the past progressive (was â¦ing), was going to â¦, would, or was to.
As the Duchess had said, the fact that Emily was marrying a general was a very adequate excuse for such ceremony at the wedding.

Pevious threads wrote:

My initial direct speech sentence:
When I registered my aunt at the gym, I asked them, âAre you going to give her money back if she doesnât like it?â

My sentence transformed into a reported speech sentence:
When I registered my aunt at the gym, I asked them whether they would give her money back, if she didn't like it.

Now, here my sentence is changed into what I would say if I had to talk about the past:

As they said when I registered her at the gym, the fact that the gym had this policy she would be reimbursed if she was to not like it.

Please, tell me if my last sentence is right. Do I understand the right way the reported speech and the future in the past?

I'm very grateful for your help.

SFB

Re: My Direct Speech to Put into Indirect

Clive — Mon, 29 Aug 2005 19:14:51 GMT

Hi Waiti,

I agree about if she did not like it..

I also agree that two if's like this is not beautiful English. However, we do say that kind of thing a lot. Your suggestion with should she not ... is correct grammar, but sounds very formal. More common might be something like ... whether they would give her money back, if she didn't like it...

Best wishes, Clive

Re: My Direct Speech to Put into Indirect

WaÃ¯ti — Mon, 29 Aug 2005 18:49:12 GMT

Not that I will necessarily contribute towards an answer to your question... But merely to keep the ball rolling until someone seizes it...

My 2 cents (eurocents) guess would be :
'... if they would give her money back if she did not like it..'

But this sounds like too many 'ifs'.
So let me suggest a 5 cents option :
'... if they would give her money back, should she not like it...'
And you can keep the change, should you not like my counter-proposal :-)

My Direct Speech to Put into Indirect

SpoonfedBaby — Mon, 29 Aug 2005 16:23:25 GMT

Hello again dear Teachers,

I would like to change my direct question to an indirect question.

When I registered my aunt at the gym, I asked them, âAre you going to give her money back if she doesnât like it?â

How do I do to switch further back the verb tense of âif she does not like it?â

When I registered my aunt at the gym, I asked them if they would give her money back if she "????" not like it, and they answered, "Yes".

A thousand thanks,

SFB