Is the sentence "I said I will help you!" correct? Is this "good" English?!?!
Or is only the sentence "I said I would help you!" exact?
(In the German language both "Ich sagte ich werde (= will) dir helfen!" and "Ich sagte ich würde (= would) dir helfen!" are accurate)
To me correct is :
"I said I would help you"
"Would" is the Past Tense of "Will"
You have to use Past Tense in both sentences.
It depends on when you promised to help. Here's a scenario.
Tuesday: John says to Rick: "I'll help you on Thursday"
Wednesday: Rick says to John: "Are you ready to help me yet?"
John responds: "I said, I will help you tomorrow".
John uses 'will' in the last sentence because John still
plans to help Rick on Thursday. But suppose John is too
busy on Thursday.
Friday: Rick says to John: "You said you would help me yesterday."
John says to Rick "Yeah, I said I would help you, but I was too busy."
Here, since everything is in the past, the 'will' becomes 'would'.
One way to test things out is to replace 'will' with 'plan to' and
'would' with 'planned to'. if the sentence sounds right after the
change, it probably was right to begin with.
I think this may be a grey area currently, at least in the US. But I would use "would." When I was learning grammar in school, there was no question about this.
The rule about using "would" here is that it expresses a future in the past. It is reporting a statement that pertained to the future at the time it was made. Whether the time the help was supposed to be given has passed or not doesn't matter.
D's example -- I said, I will help you tomorrow -- is a bit confusing as to intent, becaue of the comma after "said." It implies that the speaker is quoting himself, in which case it is correct (except that to be a quote, there shoud be quotation marks). But if it is reported the statement that was made, you should use "would."
becaue = because
if it is reported = if it is reporting that
The comma in "I said, I will help you tomorrow" was only
meant to indicate a pause in speech -- please ignore it.
Since you said it in the past, and it was a future event seen from a time in the past, you would normally use the past tense of "will," which is "would." Using "will" is a form of indirect or direct quotation—you're repeating what you said in the past: "I said, I will help you, as soon as I'm done with this lady." You could probably just put it in quotation marks: "I said, 'I will help you, as soon as I'm done with this lady.'"
Thus, the comma you put in the sentence doesn't just indicate a pause, it introduces an indirect quotation. In speech, this would be marked by a pause. So you can't just ignore it.
To be on the safe side, either put it all in quotation marks, or use "would."
Here is a second, clearer sentence:
Canada said yesderday that it will not join the
US missile defense system.
The main verb is 'said' in the past tense. I would still
use the word 'will,' however, because Canada's refusal
to join is ongoing.
I mistyped yesterday in the last post. It should read:
Canada said yesterday that it will not join the
US missile defense system.
The main verb is 'said' in the past tense. I would still
use the word 'will,' however, because Canada's refusal
to join is ongoing.
You can search on google for the phrases:
"said she will not"
"said he will not"
"said it will not"
to find many more examples.
Thank you boys and girls for your replies!
As I said, both forms are common especially in the spoken German language.
And my question was meant to be more a general one ... whether or not "will" is ever used in such a context ...
But when I think about what you said about quotation marks and pause when using "will" instead of "would" ...
Maybe it's also better to use the German sentence with "will" like this: "Ich sagte, 'ich werde (= will) dir helfen'!"
I always use "would" there. "Will" sounds so awkward to me.