Timeline for Does the verb "be" in a reported speech have to be in the past?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
6 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Jul 1, 2013 at 1:05 | vote | accept | mosceo | ||
| Jun 28, 2013 at 1:53 | history | edited | StoneyB on hiatus | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Jun 28, 2013 at 1:41 | comment | added | StoneyB on hiatus | @FumbleFingers In my experience, we elide the /w/ but not the vowel, so it's not heard as a contraction. (But the vowel is less clearly marked in Southern dialects like mine, because "I" is monophthongal /a/, not a dipthong, so there's no /j/-glide.) And if we spell it out as eye dialect, it's "uz", never "I's", which is the contraction of "I is", once a stock illiteracy invariably attributed to the Stage Negro and Stage Hillbilly. | |
| Jun 28, 2013 at 1:18 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | ...if I actually used I's in OP's context, I'd imagine it as short for "...but I told him I's [gonna be] out of town tomorrow". That seems to me a reasonable compromise on the tense/mood I'd be looking for. | |
| Jun 28, 2013 at 1:13 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | Maybe my speech is a bit more sloppy than yours - I'm quite capable of contracting I was to I's. And I suspect Americans in general may do this more than Brits. | |
| Jun 28, 2013 at 0:14 | history | answered | StoneyB on hiatus | CC BY-SA 3.0 |