[Where does he find Acie?] into reported speech

[GhotiO |fɪʃ|]

Here's some dialogue from Killers of the Flower Moon (2023):

William: I want you to find Acie Kirby and tell him it's time on the Smith job.
Ernest: I just don't know him. I-- I don't know Acie Kirby.. Wher--
William [turns to the driver of the car]: Where does he find Acie?
Driver: Just find John Ramsey. He'll know.

How can we say the underlined sentence in reported speech?

 

[5jj]

Williams asked the driver where Ernest could find Acie.

 

[jutfrank]

William [turns to the driver of the car]: Where does he find Acie?

This isn't a natural way to ask the question. It's either old-fashioned or dialectical, or both. In modern standard international English, you'd use 'can'.

Where can he find Acie?

In this case the reported version would be:

William asked the driver where Ernest could find Acie.

You can see that 'can' backshifts to 'could'.

 

[GhotiO |fɪʃ|]

This isn't a natural way to ask the question. It's either old-fashioned or dialectical, or both. In modern standard international English, you'd use 'can'.

What is it exactly that makes it not natural? Is it the third person preposition?
What about these? Are they also not natural?

• "Where do I find him?"
• "Where do we find him?"

 

[Tarheel]

Say:

Where can I find him?

Or:

Where can we find him?

 

[jutfrank]

What is it exactly that makes it not natural?

Use of 'do instead of 'can'.

What about these? Are they also not natural?

• "Where do I find him?"
• "Where do we find him?"

Well, it depends on how they're used. Why would you want to use 'do' instead of 'can'?

 

[GhotiO |fɪʃ|]

Why would you want to use 'do' instead of 'can'?

I don't want to : ) It's just that over the years, I've seen hundreds of times native speakers say "How do I do it?", "What do we do now?", "Where do I sing?" etc, etc.

 

[jutfrank]

The issue here is the verb 'find'.

 

[GhotiO |fɪʃ|]

The issue here is the verb 'find'.

First you said it was the use of "do" instead of "can", now it's the verb "find". OK, I see.
Could you explain to me please why the issue is the verb "find"?

As you know, that sentence "Where does he find Acie?" isn't my writing, it's from an American movie, Killers of the Flower Moon (2023). The line was said by Robert De Niro.

 

[emsr2d2]

In the context of that line of dialogue in that film, the use of "does" is OK. It might sound unusual because we rarely hear/use it in the third person.

Helen: I want to buy an English-Spanish dictionary.
Shopkeeper: You need our languages section.
Helen: And where do I find that?

In the original, it's almost as if de Niro is asking the question on behalf of Ernest. Ernest could have turned to the driver of the car and said "Where do I find Acie?"

 

[GhotiO |fɪʃ|]

In the original, it's almost as if de Niro is asking the question on behalf of Ernest. Ernest could have turned to the driver of the car and said "Where do I find Acie?"

No, he could not. Not in that situation. Ernest had no idea the driver of the car could possible have any information of Acie's whereabouts. It was entirely William's idea to ask the driver.

 

[jutfrank]

First you said it was the use of "do" instead of "can", now it's the verb "find". OK, I see.

Yes, the combination of 'does' and 'find' rather than the combiation of 'can' and 'find' which I would expect. I thought that much was clear.

Could you explain to me please why the issue is the verb "find"?

As you know, that sentence "Where does he find Acie?" isn't my writing, it's from an American movie, Killers of the Flower Moon (2023).

Yes, I know. It's set in 1920s Oklahoma. I haven't seen it yet but I intend to soon.

 

[emsr2d2]

No, he could not. Not in that situation. Ernest had no idea the driver of the car could possibly have any information of about Acie's whereabouts. It was entirely William's idea to ask the driver.

OK, I haven't seen the film so I don't know the situation. I was merely making the point that we're much more used to hearing "Where do I find ...?" than "Where does he find ...?" It's not usually the kind of question you ask because someone else needs the information.

 

[jutfrank]

Helen: I want to buy an English-Spanish dictionary.
Shopkeeper: You need our languages section.
Helen: And where do I find that?

The idea I'm settling on now is that 'do' (coupled with 'find') suggests more the sense of something being permanently located somewhere, and your nice example seems to support this idea—the languages section is the permanent, designated place for bilingual dictionaries.

As an equivalent, let's take, for example, the following pair:

Where do I wash my hands? = [I'm asking about the designated place for handwashing]
Where can I wash my hands? = [I'm asking about any suitable place to wash my hands]

Applying this idea to a context similar to that of the film:

Where do I find Acie? = Where does Acie reside?
Where can I find Acie? = Where is Acie?

This now makes sense to me, so I'll take back what I said about the original line not sounding natural. I'll also add that I don't think it has anything to do with it being in the third person. I think this is just a case of not having sufficient context to understand what the dialogue actually means.

GhotiO—please tell me whether what I've said in this post applies sensibly to the context of the film. Thank you.