By Indirect questions, Conversations

I know 'would' carries many meanings. My problem is sometimes I find it difficult to tell which meaning the speaker uses. I think I understand its hypothetical usage, and in some contexts, its politeness usage. Below is a post that has several woulds I have trouble interpreting. I also...

You are correct for careful writing, but in fact native speakers do with some frequency place the indirect question in direct-question order in casual conversation.

Either 2 or 3 is fine. To me, the only difference would be if the conversation took place a long time ago, I'd use the "was." No, with indirect questions, you do not use the question mark.

Hi, According to 'Modern English Usage' by Fowler, an indirect question is the grammarian's name for a modification of what was originally a question. I don't see an 'original question' at the start of this exchange. It sems to me that the conversation could be something like A: Tom is my...

The question is "may I know...?" and the rest is an indirect question, so (1) flows better. In conversation you might well use (2), but it's not a single sentence.

Let's say that you want to speak everyday American English, not write a formal paper. In that case you would not go far wrong to use "whom" immediately after a preposition, "who" otherwise. Since the sentence initial position is never after a preposition (by definition of "initial position"),...

Hello Paco I find these forms natural (taking the 2nd 'if' as whether, as CJ suggests): 1a. If I want to know whether my engine is the problem or not, I need/am going to need another engine (type 1 – the engine is playing up). 1b. If I want to know whether my engine was the problem or not, I...