Reported speech and capital letters

[SunnySnowyDaze]

Could anyone tell me which is correct please?

A. "The cat is not yours." He said, scowling.

B. "The cat is not yours," He said, scowling.

C. "The cat is not yours." he said, scowling.

D. "The cat is not yours," he said, scowling.

D

Although actually I'd remove the comma

D

D

D .

A makes it into two sentences so the cat comment and the scowl disconnect. Same for C but with improper capitalisation.

B is only right if his name is He. Otherwise no capital letter. I'd also get rid of the first comma.

I too would do D without the comma.

He scowled as he said, "The cat is not yours."

D

D

A. "The cat is not yours." He said, scowling.
Wrong because it’s one sentence. “He said, scowling.” isn’t a complete sentence, it needs the first clause.

B. "The cat is not yours," He said, scowling.
Wrong because you’ve got a rogue capital letter without a full stop (unless the character’s given name is in fact He.)

C. "The cat is not yours." he said, scowling.
Wrong because you’ve got a full stop but no capital letter AND the two parts of the sentence are not linked.

D. "The cat is not yours," he said, scowling.
Correct!

Is that reported speech? I understood reported speech to be when you use one tense in the past, like:

He said that the cat wasn't hers.

Incidentally, WHY do you use one tense on the past? It isn't the past subjunctive otherwise it would be "weren't hers," wouldn't it? As in "if I were you."

But all the other grammatical rules about using the past are subjunctive related (wishing, conditionals, would rather..) etc.

The most interesting thing is that none of those 3 examples of the 'wrong' way to write that sentence shows the most common mistake, which in my experience is getting the punctuation in the wrong place outside the speech marks e.g. "The cat is not yours", he said, scowling.

@QuentinInQuarantino

Is that reported speech? I understood reported speech to be when you use one tense in the past, like:

He said that the cat wasn't hers.

Incidentally, WHY do you use one tense on the past? It isn't the past subjunctive otherwise it would be "weren't hers," wouldn't it? As in "if I were you."

But all the other grammatical rules about using the past are subjunctive related (wishing, conditionals, would rather..) etc.

Isn't that just singular vs plural? The cat wasn't hers The cats weren't hers

It's direct speech.
And d is correct.
Comma before closing the speech marks, then no following capital.

D

@goodwinter you can have a singular subject with 'were' - it's subjunctive. An example is 'if I were rich...'

Thanks all.

However, what if the speech is quotation marks is a full sentence?

For example, here, B would presumably be the correct answer? Even though the speech in quotes is a full sentence?

A. "I will not be returning to the restaurant." he said.

B. "I will not be returning to the restaurant," he said.

B.

It’s not that the first bit isn’t a full sentence, it’s the second bit - the “he said”. You can’t divorce it from the speech, it needs to stay attached to the speech.

D is correct, but it's not reported speech.

In your last example, B is correct (although again it's not reported speech).