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Anonymous Posted 18 years ago
Grammar

Reported speech?

0 Hi,02br
02br
00Let us pretend that I have a nice used pen for sale and I want to sell it to the highest bidder in a garage sale.02br
02br
001. My friend: Hi, John said that he will buy it for XXX dollars. Would you go for it?02br
02br
00In reported speech, the above construction wouldn't work and the sentence below, which seems the correct reported-speech version, doesn't seem much different in tems of the overall effect.02br
02br
00 Hi, John said that he would buy it for XXX dollars.02br
02br
002. If I put a date at the end ofthe sentence, how can I report it?02br
00 My friend: Hi, John said that he will buy it for XXX dollars on July 7th. Would you go for it?02br
00Reported speech??02br
00Hi, John said that he would buy it for XXX dollars on July 7th. Right??0-
  

Top answer

02br 001. "01i 00Hi, John said that he will buy it for 3 dollars. 02br 02br 02br 002.

— Mister Micawber

  • 02br 001.
  • "01i 00Hi, John said that he will buy it for 3 dollars.
  • 02br 02br 02br 002.
  • "01i 00Hi, John said that he will buy it for 3 dollars on July 7th.
  • 02i 00"02br 02br 00My friend said that John had said he would buy it for 3 dollars on July 7th and asked me if I'd go for that.
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2 Answers
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0 .02br
001. "01i00Hi, John said that he will buy it for 3 dollars. Would you go for it?02i00"02br
02br
00My friend said that John had said he would buy it for 3 dollars and asked me if I'd go for that.02br
02br
02br
002. "01i00Hi, John said that he will buy it for 3 dollars on July 7th. Would you go
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0
0 I think it comes down to what you intended to say/convey, mixing tenses, and understanding the difference between 'will' and 'would.' If you go strictly off of your premise that there's a person seeking to buy a pen from you and you'll have the final say, then you must use 'would'--'will' means it is a definite that's set to occur in the future (whereas 'would' is conditional). 0-
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