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I have seen the same question but written in a different way. I guess only one of the following is grammatically correct. Please tell me which and why?
a. What did you say was your name?
b. What did you say your name was?
It seems that both a) & b) in fact consists of 2 questions, "What is your name?" & "What did you say?". Is better not to merge 2 questions into one?
Last edited by Secondtongue; 05-Apr-2008 at 11:24.
The reason for "say" in this question is that you did not hear or understand what the person said the first time.
it would be impolite in this context merely to ask "What did you say?".
Thank you but I think only one of them is grammatically correct because I saw the above in a multiple choice question (I don't remember which examination paper).
I have seen the same question but written in a different way. I guess only one of the following is grammatically correct. Please tell me which and why?
a. What did you say was your name?
b. What did you say your name was?
It seems that both a) & b) in fact consists of 2 questions, "What is your name?" & "What did you say?". Is better not to merge 2 questions into one?
A is acceptable in colloquial speech
B is always correct
What I hear is "What did you say your name was (again)?"
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which is qhe correct way to ask and why 
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