By Grammar, Direct speech

According to Radford (Transformational Grammar):Direct speech: "Will I get a degree?" John wondered.Indirect speech: John wondered whether he would get a degree.Semi-indirect speech: John wondered would he get a degree.(Semi-indirect speech is so called because it shares features of...

Yes, you are absolutely right! It is indeed indirect speech (I realized it later after reading more) and then we don't use auxiliary "do" in indirect questions.But I found this to be a tricky one. Yes, I have Swan's book but he doesn't mention that we can use auxiliary do...

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....

MariusI obey you.The issue is that I am not clever as you all to judge sentences.So I am posting here.This is reported speech. However, this is a tall order for me; I can't convert the direct sentence to the indirect as you did. You are an ultra clever man in English grammar.I have the Swan's...

<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...

Yoong Liat wrote: The teacher said, "The world is round." In reported speech, it would be The teacher said that the world is round. One of my English usage books says it can be reported as The teacher said that the world was round. ( was consistent with said in tense) What do you think? ...

Hi, I wonder whether my writing is correct or not.There seem to be so many questions..The followings are questions about English grammar.please answer me.. 1 Which is correct or better ?(1) See you tomorrow, same time, same place. This is more common(2) See you tomorrow at the same time and the...

Hi ..I wonder whether my writing is correct or not.There seem to be so many questions..The followings are questions about English grammar.please answer me.. 1 Which is correct or better ?(1) See you tomorrow same time same place.(2) See you tomorrow at the same time and the same place. 2 Which...

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...