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Tenacious Learner Posted 15 years ago
Grammar

Shall I ..? for indirect speech

Hi teachers,

Is this direct speech to indirect speech sentence correct?
Tom said, "Shall I study English?"
Tom said if he would study English.

Thanks in advance
  

Top answer

Thanks in advance I will report this way: Tom asked if could study English.

— Vsuresh

  • Thanks in advance I will report this way: Tom asked if could study English.
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8 Answers
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Is this direct speech to indirect speech sentence correct?Tom said, "Shall I study English?"Tom said if he would study English.Thanks in advance

I will report this way:

Tom asked if could study English.
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Thanks vsuresh, you are right it must be with the verb 'asked'.

But wouldn't it be: Tom asked if he could study English.
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I'm sorry; I missed it. Thanks.
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No problem vsuresh, but I found on some webs that the reported verb for 'shall' is 'would', isn't it?
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yes, but in this case could sounds more appropriate.
He said, "I shall help you."
He said that he would help me. Here we use 'would' for 'shall'.
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I shall go tomorrow _ he said

CHANGE IN INDIRECT SPEECH

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Tom said, "Shall I study English?"
Tom said if he would study English.

The indirect speech is wrong. In it you have to use should instead of would because the shall in direct speech does not denote the future statement. Instead it denotes advice. That's why we use should here. When you use would here, it will not be advice. It will be

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