Birthday Present For a Girlfriend
It was Sunday and I was planning to visit somewhere. Suddenly, my phone rang, it was one of my friends whom I met in English Park last Sunday. He asked me if I was free and if I could go shopping. Yes! I answered him, as I myself was planning to visit somewhere. I asked him what he had to buy and which market he planned to go to. Birthday gift for my girlfriend, he said. He was new in this city, so he didn't know any market himself. I told him to meet me near "The Free Supermarket". He came, and we both entered the market. We went to the garment stall, first. A beautiful dress attracted his eyes and he asked me about it. It's very beautiful, I said. Again he asked me about the color, and I answered him, you should choose the color yourself. He picked the red one happily. Lovely choice, I said. We moved to the jewelry stall. We ourselves didn't have any idea about jewelry, so we asked the shopkeeper then, we bought a necklace and moved to the cash counter. Rs.10005, Sir, the cashier spoke with a smile on her face. No discount? My friend asked. Sir, we have discount in cloths, but jewelry? First cashier asked to second, but the second didn't know, herself. They didn't know about it themselves, so they called the manager to ask him. We made the payment and returned back to our home.
This is a writing challenge blog and I wrote it myself. It's very helpful for improving our writing skill. You can challenge yourself to participate in this challenge.
Comments
I'll write one soon, Sir. Thanks a bunch for your encouraging comment! Have very beautiful time. :)
I hope you will write another blog. I always liked to read yours.
Thank you, Nida!
Firstly, understand that your sentence is an interrogative sentence. That means it is a question. A question can be of two type. One type which can be answered in only NO or YES(your question is of this type, so I will explain only this type), and other type which needs a little bit explanation for its answer(For example: If I ask you, "how are you, Rajesh?" You would never answer in NO or YES. Instead you would say that you are fine.)
*****************************************************
Your original sentence:
He asked me if I am free today and can go for shopping with him.
Correct sentence:
He asked me if I was free that day and if I could go shopping with him.
Now let me explain it step by step:
1. Let me change your sentence into "direct speech"(into your friend's actual words) first..
He said to me, "are you free today and can you go shopping with me?"
When you wrote your blog and told us about your conversation with your friend, you changed your friend's actual words into your own words(indirect speech/reported speech). So it became:
He asked me if I was free that day and if I could go shopping with him.
2. How we change direct speech into indirect speech?
-> Quotation marks are not used in the indirect speech.
-> Question mark is not used in the indirect speech.
-> To change a question (here I'm talking about the question that can be answered in NO or YES) into indirect speech, word IF or WHETHER is used before the question in indirect speech.
He asked me if I was free that day and if I could go shopping with him. (underlined part is the question in indirect speech. we have used IF before it.)
-> Now I will explain why am was changed to was and why can was changed to could. Normally, the tense in indirect speech is one tense back in time from the tense in direct speech:
For example: She said, "I am free." (direct speech) am = present tense
She said that she was free. (indirect speech) was = past tense.
Tense is one tense back in time. Present tense is now past tense. For the same reason, can changed to could.
Note: You do not need to change the tense if the reporting verb("asked", "said" and "told" are examples of reporting verb in the past tense) is in the present tense, or if the original statement was about something that is still true or is universal truth.
-> Why today was changed to that day?
If the sentence in the direct speech contains an expression of time, you must change it as well.
Shifting of expressions of time:
Today changes to that day/the same day
Tomorrow changes to the next day/the following day
Yesterday changes to the day before/the previous day
Next week/month/year changes to the following week/month/year
Last week/month/year changes to the previous week/month/year
Now/just changes to then
Ago changes to before
Here changes to there
This changes to that
He asked me if I was free that day and if I could go shopping with him.
Yes, Nida. I didn't get it yet, so need your explanation in that sentence.:) Sorry! I'm late too.:) Thanks!
Thank you, Thamer!
Hello Rajesh, I'm sorry for late reply.
Well, it looks like you've already understood why it was wrong. However, if you still need me to explain it for you, please let me know. Btw, you could have replace "today" in your previous sentence with "that day". Sorry I didn't do that when I rectified your sentence. I can see that Tara had completely omitted "today".
Sorry again for my late reply.
i think the redendencey (repeet) is powerful things to lerning
of my best wishes
Dear Nida, thanks for the link. Well, I read this lesson, but couldn't understand how to fix first sentence. Please let me know how it should be.
And, thank you so much again for the correction. Your grammar is really very good. Keep it up. Cheers!
Hi Rose, thanks for reading and liking it. Glad to see that you participated in this Writing Challenge. Cheers!
-
1
-
2
-
3
of 3 Next