Can I/ I can

Can I/ I can
Message from lonlyspartakos posted on 05-09-2014 at 12:14:40 (D | E | F)
Hello,
Could you please tell where.......... buy a Christmas tree?
- Can
- Can i
- Could
- I can

me and my friends and I had a very long argument about whether the correct answer " Can i " or " I can " ...
can someone help me, to know which one is grammatically right?
Thanks for any reply.

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Edited by lucile83 on 06-09-2014 07:42
You have to write I, not i (capital letter)

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Re: Can I/ I can from carlabice47, posted on 05-09-2014 at 12:33:29 (D | E)
Hello,
the inversion after a question is not correct but it's very usual nowadays:
Could you tell me..... (indirect question ) where I can buy ...
Could you tell me where I could buy ..... ( means that buying this is rather unusual ,which is not the case here.
Hope it'll help!!!

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Edited by lucile83 on 06-09-2014 07:45

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Re: Can I/ I can from gerondif, posted on 05-09-2014 at 13:27:21 (D | E)
Hello,
Could you please tell where to buy a Christmas tree?
Could you please tell where I can buy a Christmas tree?
The question is in the indirect speech, therefore, no inversion is required.
Where can I buy a Christmas tree ?
I don't you where I can buy a Christmas tree.

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Re: Can I/ I can from traviskidd, posted on 06-09-2014 at 02:22:58 (D | E)
hello,
Me and my friends My friends and I

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Re: Can I/ I can from clint01, posted on 07-09-2014 at 11:48:50 (D | E)
Hello Lonely,
When you want to ask a question using where, when, what and how and you insist on using 'Could you please tell me' no inversion is required. as Gerondif recommended.
So 'Where do you live' changes to 'Could you please tell me (let me know) where you live?'.
But suppose you wanted to ask the question that follows:
Are you a Londoner?
Using 'Could you please tell me':
In yes or no questions,
we can say: 'Could you please tell me if(whether) you are a Londoner?'

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Re: Can I/ I can from piggy899, posted on 08-09-2014 at 16:58:13 (D | E)
the coreect answer should be I can

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