By Indirect speech, Difference between

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....

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...

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...

Dear teachers, - What is the difference in meaning between all these sentences ? Are they all correct ? 1a) My friend MAY BE ill. = Present; There is a strong possibility ? b) My friend MIGHT BE ill. = Conditional; There is a weaker possibility ? c) My friend MIGHT HAVE BEEN ill. = Past,...