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#2 (permalink) Mon Feb 11, 2008 2:30 am indirect speech |
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. Yes, that's right. You cannot regress any more from past perfect. But is the tourist a 'he' or a 's/he'? . _________________ Native English teacher at Mister Micawber's |
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Mister Micawber Language Coach
Joined: 17 Jul 2005 Posts: 13015
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#3 (permalink) Mon Feb 11, 2008 8:22 am is the tourist 'he' or 'she'? |
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Hi, Mister Micawber.
I'm a bit confused.I'm afraid I don't know whether the tourist is 'he' or 'she'. Is it important to know?
Vladimir. |
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Vladimir I'm new here and I like it ;-)
Joined: 21 Dec 2007 Posts: 10
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#4 (permalink) Mon Feb 11, 2008 9:21 am indirect speech |
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. No, it's not, but these days it is politically correct to consider the possibility of an unnamed person's being of either sex. I myself am enamoured of the newly-coined pronoun 's/he', but this is not yet generally accepted. . _________________ Native English teacher at Mister Micawber's |
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Mister Micawber Language Coach
Joined: 17 Jul 2005 Posts: 13015
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#5 (permalink) Mon Feb 11, 2008 9:53 am pronoun 's/he' |
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Thank you, Mister Micawber, again.Frankly speaking I've never heard of 's/he'. Reading it I thought that it's a slip of a finger of yours.When we use it we, men, pay respect to women, don't we? |
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Vladimir I'm new here and I like it ;-)
Joined: 21 Dec 2007 Posts: 10
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#6 (permalink) Mon Feb 11, 2008 10:11 am indirect speech |
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. Yes, we do. . _________________ Native English teacher at Mister Micawber's |
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Mister Micawber Language Coach
Joined: 17 Jul 2005 Posts: 13015
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#7 (permalink) Mon Feb 11, 2008 11:04 am indirect speech |
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Hi Vladimir,
Your conversion to indirect speech is indeed accurate but I think it's better wherever possible to leave out the he said/she said that construction and in the example you gave, I would simply say:
The tourist wished they'd taken .....
On the matter of the gender of the tourist, I would have thought that would be known since your original sentence is not talking about 'the tourist' in general. On the choice of 's/he', Charles, I am at odds with you since I abhor that construction. I always plump for 'they' whenever possible in generalised statements when you just don't know the gender of the person or when you want to refer to both genders. I would therefore write: When a child first goes to school, they have to learn to get on with others.
Alan _________________ English as a Second Language You can read my ESL story Present Simple |
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Alan Co-founder

Joined: 27 Sep 2003 Posts: 13891 Location: UK
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#8 (permalink) Mon Feb 11, 2008 11:05 am indirect speech |
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. Plump away, Alan-- I'll check back with you in a hundred years or so for a pronoun review. . _________________ Native English teacher at Mister Micawber's |
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Mister Micawber Language Coach
Joined: 17 Jul 2005 Posts: 13015
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#9 (permalink) Tue Feb 12, 2008 16:54 pm indirect speech |
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Thank you Mister Micawber and Alan.It was very useful and interesting for me to find out your opinions. The simpler the better. Vladimir. |
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Vladimir I'm new here and I like it ;-)
Joined: 21 Dec 2007 Posts: 10
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| Alertly vs raptly | advanced or advance? |