Hi, Alexander!  Recently you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:

AH>  When she complained to my mother, my mother answered
AH>  "How would the doctor know if you were turning blue
AK>  with that stuff on?" :-))

AK>  Ahem , besides the absence of the comma before the
AK>  quotation marks, I wanna remark again that inside of
AK>  those marks there is the direct speech.  So,
AK>  theoretically, it should be either

AK>  My mother answered, "How will the doctor know if you
AK>  are turning blue with that stuff on?"

AK>  or (as the indirect speech)

AK>  My mother answered her that the doctor would not know
aK>  if she was turning blue with that stuff on.


          I see two questions here... one regarding my punctuation & the other
regarding verb tenses.

 1)  Yes, it's more traditional to use a comma when introducing a direct quote
     as I did above.  There's also a growing trend, however... particularly in
     North America... to reserve commas for situations in which they're needed
     for clarity.  With formal writing I would adhere to established practice.

 2)  IIRC I'm quoting exactly what my mother said.  This event occurred a long
     time ago, but my mother was a stickler for correctness & I think what she
     probably had in mind was what might have happened while her room mate was
     on the operating table if the nurse hadn't intervened.  I see speculation
     in both the direct & indirect versions... but since I wasn't present when
     the incident occurred I can't be sure whether my mother commented before,
     during, or after the makeup removal.  I may be thinking in the past tense
     because when I arrived this woman was still awaiting surgery although the
     other events I heard about had already taken place.  Give yourself a gold
     star for noticing details which I may have overlooked in both cases.  :-)




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+
 * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)