Ambiguous, I guess? (When did he say that he would come? or When, according to him, would he come?)
+1
"he" refers either to him(self) or to someone else.
It's not really very ambiguous, if at all.
If we were talking about 2 different people, we'd normally be more specific like in the following.
When did he say Tom was coming?
[#3662341] When did Tom say Mary was coming?
[#3662343] When did Tom say Mary would come?
I was rather pointing at
When did he say [he would come]?
vs
When [did he say] he would come?
The first interpretation looks unusual but quite possible, no?
In other words, which answer is appropriate for this question? Are both options possible?
Q: When did he say he would come?
A1: He said he would come at 2:30.
A2: It was yesterday when he said this.
+1
I can't imagine any native English speaker asking this question to elicit an answer like A2.
I know for sure that I wouldn't.
Suppose you actually want to know for whatever reason the time when that sentence was uttered. What would you ask then?
Tags
View all tagsSentence text
License: CC BY 2.0 FRAudio
Logs
We cannot determine yet whether this sentence was initially derived from translation or not.
linked by an unknown member, date unknown
added by an unknown member, date unknown
linked by Hans07, December 25, 2010
linked by Martha, May 20, 2011
linked by duran, September 20, 2011
linked by sacredceltic, January 9, 2012
linked by Amastan, July 15, 2012
linked by sharptoothed, November 26, 2014
unlinked by sharptoothed, November 28, 2014
linked by sharptoothed, November 28, 2014
linked by cueyayotl, September 29, 2015
linked by Guybrush88, December 1, 2015
linked by Guybrush88, December 1, 2015
linked by odexed, November 24, 2020
linked by bunbuku, November 25, 2022
linked by marafon, October 23, 2023