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Mr. Tom Posted 19 years ago
Grammar

Expression: 'He replied he was busy.'

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00Could you please shed some light on the following sentence? Why is it 01b00grammatically wrong02b00?02br
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01b00'He replied he was busy.'02b0-
  

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6 Answers
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0 "He replied 01b00that 02b00he was busy" - although you may hear the sentence without "that", it correctly should be there.0-
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0It's fine.02br
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00You can also write it as: He replied that he was busy. 02br
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00or 02br
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00He replied, "I'm busy."0-
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0Here's my two cents, Tom.02br
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00I agree with GG that omitting 'that' is not grammatically wrong. 02br
00However, to me, 01b00'He replied 01i00that02i00 he was busy.' 02b00sounds more natural ( i.e. more natural with the word 'that' than without it). 02br
00I'm not sure why, though. 05002br
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1font00However, to me, 01b00'He replied 01i00that02i00 he was busy.' 02b00sounds more natural ( i.e. more natural with the word 'that' than without it). 02br
00I'm not sure why, though.02br
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00Personally, I would be more likely to omit 'that' in this sentence: '01i00He01b
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0For what it's worth, I agree with both of you that "that" sounds more natural. But since he asked what was WRONG with it, I felt the first answer was "nothing."02br
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00I would say it exactly as you say, Amy, 99% of the time.0-
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I think its correct. But I'm not a native English speaker but a student.
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