Native english speakers - help needed with direct speech?

Posted:: 3+ months ago by Tegilbor
Topics:: english

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In English, there seem to be two different ways to indicate the speaker in direct speech:
"I like this," John said.
"I like this," said John.
Is one of these better? Or is there a rule when one or the other way would be applied? Do they carry a specific connotation?
I'm not a native speaker, so in some cases, this inverted word order seems strange to me. For example:
"How does it work?" John interrupted quickly.
"How does it work?" interrupted John quickly.
The latter sounds weird to me. Is it correct, or does it also sound weird to native speakers? I.e. would the former version be preferable? Or are they both equally valid?

I have several English grammar books, but strangely enough, none of them describe any of this.

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Milander

There're both correct grammatically, the weirdness comes from your understanding what is normally said as opposed to what is grammatically correct. For example, I wouldn't say ' "I like this," John said ', as it feels wrong even though, technically, it isn't. I would invert it thus: John said, "I like this."

With your other sentence pair the latter sounds much better, more natuiral than the former even though, again, both are correct forms.

The reason most grammar books (if not all) don't deal with this is because there are many things in all languages that "just are", there are no grammar rules for them as the exceptions to the rules would make those same rules unworkable.
Also once you reach a certain level with any language it is expected that you will develop a "feel" for what is right and wrong as you have demonstrated with your question. In these cases you need to learn to trust your feelings and not reach for a grammar book. If you have any other questions I'm happy to answer them. :)

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Tegilbor

Thanks for the answer! It is funny - when I read an English book, the inverted word order seems completely ok to me, but when I write a text myself, it feels unnatural. ;-)

One thing I noticed: I have often seen:
"I like this," said John.
But never:
"I like this," said he.
It always seems to be the following:
"I like this," he said.

Is it incorrect or just "strange" to use the inverted word order with a pronoun?

Milander

Think of it like this, an active sentences' ordering is subject, verb, object. So if we say:

- He said, "I like it" - 'he' is subject 'Like' is verb and the quote is the object. now..

if we change the ordering to verb subject object:

- Said he, "I like it". -

then not only does it sound wrong but it is breaking a rule of English grammar regarding sentence structure (although that particular rule is fairly flexible within reason, think about how Yoda speaks in Star wars).

Now, if you put the object of an active sentence first then it becomes passive and like a passive sentence what was the subject now becomes the object therefore:

- "I like this", said john - rather than - "I like this", John said. -

Hope that helped at bit more :)

Check out passive structures and reported speech in your grammar book.

Tegilbor

Nope, now I am completely confused, because the same could be said for the sentence "Said John". It is just as wrong as "Said he" is according to you, so I am sorry to say that your answer is very inconsistent.

Also, there is no passive in any of these sentences. There are only active sentences there. Either you are lacking a basic understanding of grammar or you are trying to make fun of me. Either way, quite unhelpful.

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