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He promised that he'll download the song from the Internet for me

hirashin

Sempai
Donor
8 Apr 2004
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Dear native English speakers, would you help me again?
(a) He promised that he'll download the song from the Internet for me.
Is the sentence above correct? Or should "he would" or "he'd" be used instead of "he'll"?

Would (b) and (c) be used?
(b) He promised me that he would download the song from the Internet for me.
(c) He promised me to download the song from the Internet for me.

Hirashin
 
I think both are OK for (a). I think 'would' is probably more formally correct but in spoken English nobody would notice the difference.
(b) is OK.
(c) Take out the first 'me' and then it's OK.
 
There is a difference between "he will" and "he would".

The former implies that there is still a possibility the person will download the song; the window of opportunity is still open.

The latter implies that the window of opportunity to download the song has closed (or at least that the speaker thinks so).

Neither tell us with certainty whether the song has in fact already been downloaded or not.
 
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