[General] How long do you need to wait for the second shot?

[Silverobama]

A friend in the US told me he got his first shot of the Covid vaccine then I asked him a question, I said "How long do you need to wait for the second shot?"

Is my question natural?

 

[Rover_KE]

Yes.

 

[tzfujimino]

Can you improve your sentences?
I think it's a good idea to use a conjunction.

 

[emsr2d2]

A friend in the US told me he got his first shot of the Covid vaccine then I asked him a question, I said "How long do you need to wait for the second shot?"

The punctuation mark in red above is wrong. You have created a comma splice. What would you put there instead?

 

[GoesStation]

The problem starts before the word "then".

 

[Silverobama]

The punctuation mark in red above is wrong. You have created a comma splice. What would you put there instead?

A friend in the US told me he got his first shot of the Covid vaccine then I asked him a question. I said "How long do you need to wait for the second shot?"

Is the above right?

 

[tedmc]

You need a a comma after "vaccine", followed a conjunction, "and", before "then", as tzfujimino said, to join two independent clauses. Then put a comma after "then".

 

[GoesStation]

A friend in the US told me he got his first shot of the Covid vaccine. [STRIKE]then[/STRIKE] I asked him a question. I said "How long do you need to wait for the second shot?"

Is the above right?

The question in quotation marks is. Your introductory text is okay with my corrections.

 

[tzfujimino]

You need ... a conjunction, "and", before "then", as tzfujimino said ...

Yes, that's the conjunction I was thinking of as one of the ways to fix the problem.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

A friend in the US told me he got his first shot of the Covid vaccine. Then I asked him a question. I said, "How long do you need to wait for the second shot?"

Is the above right?

It is now.

You could also just say, "Then I asked him, "How long . . . ?"

 

[GoesStation]

You could also just say, "Then I asked him, "How long . . . ?"

And that would be the most natural option.