hey guys, i know this is pretty basic, but i just want to make sure i'm right. here's an example of what i mean: "if i can't buy oranges, what if i brought some bananas instead?" is that correct? thanks
Is this dialogue? If that's the case, perfect grammar isn't necessary, though you do need a capital at the beginning of every sentence. If your dialogue is grammatically flawless, it would not sound real. It sounds okay to me, though I can't say more than that without knowing the context.
No. The first letter of a sentence is always capitalized, as is the pronoun 'I'. The question mark is correct.
Like someone else said, this only makes sense if it's dialogue. As an actual sentence it's gibberish. It should be "If I can't buy oranges, I can buy some bananas instead." As a question it doesn't work. Maybe. "I can't buy oranges. What if I bought some bananas instead?"
This is correct: The sentence is colloquial, so it doesn't easily parse, but the punctuation and capitalization are straightforward.
don't go bananas over this, kids! noob... it's ok for casual dialog--which isn't always perfectly grammatical--if capitals are put where they belong... however, it would make better sense if you change 'brought' to 'bring' since it hasn't been done yet...
i made this post in a lot of haste and meant to say: "If I can't buy oranges, what if I brought some bananas instead?" is that acceptable?
Such perfect executions to the fruit jokes, I give my applause to those. Noob, your sentence sounds fine to me. The only thing I'd recommend for it is perhaps another way of saying it. Instead of saying: "If I can't buy oranges, what if I brought some bananas instead?" Maybe you can say something like: "If I can't buy oranges, can I buy bananas instead?" Or: "If I can't buy oranges, perhaps I can purchase some bananas instead?"
I would change up the whole thing into something which fits the personality of the person doing the asking. I can't imagine how this sentence would be used outside of a dialog and within a dialog it sounds like an unlikely way to phrase something. So if I were writing for a person with my rather laid back characteristics I would use" Hey man, if the oranges don't work out, is it cool if I just drag along some bananas instead?" If it were a more controlling person I would use "I'm gonna grab some oranges but if hat don't pan out it's gonna be bananas unless you have some input on that." If it's a shy person who is very insecure ti would be maybe "I'll do my best to get the oranges but if they are all out would bananas be OK or should I keep checking stores until I find the oranges?" If it's an obnoxious an not so bright trouble maker it might go. "I don't want no stinkin oranges! You want oranges, get 'em yer own self. What do I look like yer freakin grocery monkey? I'm gettin bananas an if you don't like it then tough!" Those are my thoughts but then I am new here so don't pay too much attention to me DAve
