By Constructions, Direct speech

Hello Dawnstorm,The terminology is not happy, admittedly; "middle voice" and "ergative" belong to other linguistic contexts, as has been mentioned; but I think it can be disentangled. It may be the case that "ergative" usage was once much more common in English....

ok this is the whole thing! im very confused with changing this from indirect to direct speech! im not being lazy in trying to help my friend i just want to get it right! it looks like its a report and im not sure of the correct use for direct speech here! t29. Mr. Berdennikov ( Russian...

Hello. Sorry to hear you're feeling uncomfortable with this type of activity. But you're not alone: I would be, too!The sentences lack context, which makes it difficult to tell when tense changes are necessary and when they are not (among other things).There is one sentence that is wrong...

There’s no difference between "I believe …" and "I believe that …" in examples A) & B) given by you. ‘That’ is subordinating conjunction that joins a clause to another on which it depends for its full meaning and that it may be let out or elided sometimes in some complex sentences. It can be...

Hi Pres1dentYou should break up long posts such as this one into several short posts. That way it's much easier for other people to comment.I've made suggestions. Some of the sentences in these exercises don't sound terribly natural, so there are also suggestions in places where there were no...

Dear teachers, I'm learning how to build up "sentence transformations" exercises. Would you please help to build sentence (a) so that sentence (b) can be found? 1) a) Would it be possible to build a sentence in direct speech where we could have an expression other than "it's been ages since"? =...

Pieanne wrote: Mister Micawber wrote:Did Mary say is the interrogative inversion, Pieanne-- no question.Yes, but I was trying to compare this kind of inversion (in reported speech) with constructions like "little did she know..." etc... In the former, there's no problem to put the subject after...

If and whether, of course, always imply uncertainty. You can generally use if or whether when you are reporting yes/no questions. It doesn't matter which you choose: "Can you take care of Tommy for me? ~ I don't know yet whether / if I shall be able to look after Tommy during the Easter...

Dear teachers, Would you please tell me if the following sentences are correct? 1) a) He had not wanted to come until they had built the motorway. OR b) He had not wanted to come until they built the motorway. Is it true that the fact of having 2 different subjects can influence...

I'm merely an English learner and I don't know much about English. However, I think English speakers often use a construction "X (=a period or time span) before" to mean a sense almost similar to "X ago". This kind of construction seems to be often used in an indirect speech. (Direct speech) ...