Which is correct and why:
- I'll be grateful if you give me some details: where can I find the library and if there will be any novels?
- I'll be grateful if you give me some details: where can I find the library and if will there be any novels?
-
1Note the difference between where can I find the library (subject/verb inversion: an actual question) and where I can find the library (no inversion: a noun phrase corresponding to "the thing you want to know"). You should be saying something like I would like details about where I can find the library and whether there will be any novels. Either that, or ask actual questions with inversion: Where can I find the library, and will there be any novels [there]? – FumbleFingers Feb 3 at 12:19
-
The speaker is asking for information not details. Where a building is located and what you can find, is information. Details refer to smaller, more precise and specific pieces of information, such as those in contracts or computer programmes. – Mari-Lou A Feb 3 at 13:03
Add a comment
|
Neither is correct! The main reasons for this are:
- There are two questions, joined by the conjunction 'and'. You should be able to separate these questions and they would still make sense, but they don't:
- Where can I find the library? <-- this is fine
- If there will be any novels? <-- this is grammatically incorrect
- You state that you are going to ask for details, but then you ask open questions. If you are going to ask questions, you should say questions. Details are finer points. The answer to the second question can only be yes or no, and that isn't really 'detail'.
Correcting these issues (and other minor points) you could instead say:
- I'd be grateful if you could answer a couple of questions: where can I find the library, and will there be any novels?
more idiomatically, I would probably say:
- Please could you tell me where can I find the library, and does it have novels?
Actually, opening the sentence like this would allow you to say "if there will be any novels", because this would join perfectly:
- Please could you tell me if there will be any novels?
