By Difference between, 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....

.She says "What time will you be home?"She said "What time will you be home?"Neither of those are reported speech. They are both direct speech, the first spoken in the present and the second spoken in the past. Reported speech does not have quotation marks, but looks like...

<1> Do I have to change 'said to me' in the direct speech to 'told me' in the reported speech? I think 'said to me' in the direct speech is likely to be correct in grammar as well as meaning. -- I think either is OK,but told is usually used. <2>Which is better? ①Today...

Hi, Teacher <1> I practiced changing direct speech to reported speech. For example, He said to me, 'I'm going to be late.' to change it to reported speech, it could be 'He told me that he was going to be late.' But i wonder if 'He said to me that he was going to be late' is also...

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...

Basically, the reactor Now, don't tear your hair out and start screaming, but the second of the two series above is sometimes taken to mean the same as the first series! -- that is, taken to refer to what was then the future instead of what was then the past. My recommendation, if...

Thank you so much Jim, I really learned a lot from your last posts! A lot of things I didn't know. For example, I didn't know of that third interpretation.Basically, the reactor explode. As you see, those are part of reported speech, but you also mentioned other sentences where the forms...

IMO, this is indirect/reported speech (said) and conditionals (would) In direct speech, Solvedt says at the time of the interview: "I think that Denpack turnover would double within five years from today. " (I don't think he's certain about it) In reported speech in the past: Last...

3/ What's the difference between : I would like to see it VS I should like to see it. In American English, you do not use "I should" to mean "I would like to," which translates roughly into "Please, may I see it." I'm sure you can construct a situation in which you'd say "I should like to see...

While doing some reported/indirect speech stuff (again!) lots of questions has come to my mind. Here are some of them. 1/ 'I never eat meat', (Bill said/explained) -> turns into -> Bill said/explained (that) he never ate meat. - This is the normal way in which most of us would...