Panda eats leaves/Panda eats, leaves

[Grablevskij]

Must or had to?

The man warned us that the place was dangerous to bathe in and we ... look for a safer spot.

What does it mean?
1) He told us that we must go out. My choice.
2) As he told us we had to leave.

Am I right that if put a comma before AND, the answer will reverse?

Michael

[riverkid]

Rewritten As A New Posting.

[Grablevskij]

Don't understand anything. Sorry.

I gave my opinion. Can I suppose that you agree with me?

Michael

[RonBee]

You could also say:

The man warned us that the place was dangerous to bathe in and we should look for a safer spot.

What was your opinion, Michael?

~R

[Grablevskij]

Yes, I could but I can't. The exercise, you know. I have to choose between these two options: have to or must. But the problem is that I am in two minds about the meaning of the sentence.

So my opinion is 1 and must.
And if we put that comma, the answer will be 2 and had to.

Michael

[RonBee]

Re:

1) He told us that we must go out.
2) As he told us we had to leave.

If those are the choices, then I choose the second one. The first doesn't make sense to me.

~R

[Grablevskij]

I have read in my textbook that must can be used in reported speech.
Why not? He ordered us to go away.

Anyway, could you speculate on this subject. I can't understand anything.

Michael

[Anglika]

Must or had to?

The man warned us that the place was dangerous to bathe in and we ... look for a safer spot.

What does it mean?
1) He told us that we must go out. My choice.
2) As he told us we had to leave.

Am I right that if put a comma before AND, the answer will reverse?

Michael

"...we must look for a safer spot" seems fine to me.

No - putting in a comma will make no difference to the sentence if this word is used.

If you sayThe man warned us that the place was dangerous to bathe in, and we had to look for a safer spot, then a comma is helpful.

[riverkid]

1) He told us that we must go out.
2) As he told us we had to leave.

RonB wrote:
If those are the choices, then I choose the second one. The first doesn't make sense to me.

Isn't it because of the "strange" choice of phrasal verb that it makes no sense, Ron. If it were changed to 'get out', then what would be your take on it?

Must or had to?

The man warned us that the place was dangerous to bathe in and we ... look for a safer spot.

What does it mean?
1) He told us that we must [go] get out. My choice.
2) [As] He told us we had to leave.

I don't think it means either, Michael. But since you have to stick to these two choices, then I'd say that it depends on the situation.

If the event was over, the swimming done and this was being related to some people then 'had to' would, in all likelihood, be the choice. Why? Because we don't just choose to NOT backshift just because we can. It's done for a reason, it's done to effect certain meanings.

Now, imagine that the swimmers have exited the water, the man has left and some of the swimmers are going back into the water in the same place. Then someone may well say,

The man warned us that [the] this place was dangerous to bathe in [and] so we must look for a safer spot.

Here, the 'must' is not part of any reported speech. It's the speaker's advice that a safer place must be sought out.



Michael

##

[RonBee]

1) He told us that we must go out.
2) As he told us we had to leave.

RonB wrote:
If those are the choices, then I choose the second one. The first doesn't make sense to me.

Isn't it because of the "strange" choice of phrasal verb that it makes no sense, Ron. If it were changed to 'get out', then what would be your take on it?

It would make perfect sense to me then.

~R