Search results for 'tag:Indirect questions tag:Affirmative sentences' matching tags 'Indirect questions' and 'Affirmative sentences'

Re: Question from non-native speaker that stumped

Yankee — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 15:57:03 GMT

Hi pjyrdo

Here are my comments:

1. The word order is not the most natural. The time aspect is more typical at the end: "I don't know what I should do for three hours."

2. 'In three hours' is frequently used to refer to a point in time that is three hours from now. (e.g. I'll see you in three hours.) Your friend should use 'for' instead of 'in' because 'for' is typically used to talk about duration of time. Using 'in' will easily lead to misinterpretation. (e.g. "I don't know what I should do three hours from now.")

3. "I don't know what I should do" is correct. That is an indirect question. However, indirect questions generally do not use interrogative word order. The word order should be the same as in an affirmative sentence. Your friend should be able to find this in any grammar book.

indirect/direct questions

Newguest — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 22:54:51 GMT

I've just talked by the internet to someone about indirect and direct questions.

I wrote that:

"Where is Tom?" is a direct question

and

"Could you tell me where Tom is?" is an indirect question, and he didn't agree. He wrote that this is not an indirect question. He wrote also: "Where is Tom" may SOUND like the question you are asking, but the REAL question is "Could you tell me?" Let's say that A is asking B about Tom. "A" is DIRECTLY QUESTIONING "B."

He gave his examples:

What is wrong with Jim? [DIRECT QUESTION]
His teachers want to know what is wrong with Jim. [INDIRECT QUESTION]

NOTE: The second one is "indirect," because, even though they want to know WHAT?, the sentence is phrased as a statement, or, as you call it "an affirmative sentence."
I assume that according to him, if I said, "Could you tell me what is wrong with Jim?" this would be a direct question, but in my opinion it is indirect.

What's your opinion about it?

Re: did I / can I/ have I in affirmative clauses

giuseppe80 — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 13:42:15 GMT

Thank you very much for your aswer, Tanit, expecially for the first list you provide.

I had not included these cases:

In formal/emphatic conditional sentences: "Should you need further information, please call ..."
When expressing wishes starting with may: "May you find what you're searching for."

because they are not strictly affirmative sentences. They express a possibility or a wish.

Neither:

In short tags. "I like it!" "So do I"
Sometimes (quite literary) after as, so, than: "She was very pretty, as were her sisters."

because I think that here the reason of the inversion is the opposition topic-comment. ("I like it" is about like it or not, the new information provided by the other speaker is not a new verb, is the new subject 'I'. And the same goes with the sisters: they are not talking about the sisters, the topic is 'her' beauty, then the beauty remains the topic and the new information is that also her sisters are beautiful)

As for the indirect questions:

Sometimes in indirect questions, especially when the subject is too long (cannot think of an example right now, sorry!)

I think it is a simplier way to say them (they become just like direct questions. I noticed that lots of people -- in all languages -- are not very good in using subordinate clauses. They start as if they were introducing a subordinate clause, then put a main clause instead. When I was younger I was hosted by a British family in the summertime. One day my guest-father told me: "What I'll do tomorrow is: I prepare your packed lunch and leave it in the refrigerator")