>What's even more annoying, esp. if you're reading the passage to kids in bed, is such as: '"Quick, get under the bed and hide, before the villain sees us!", said Peter urgently'. Well it's too bloody late to tell the narator HOW the subject expressed the words AT THE END OF THE SENTENCE, after he's already delivered the dialogue in the manner he assumed it WAS to be expressed in. Does that make sense? e.g. I've often read some dialogue to my kids, only to find at the end of the sentence that the speaker was supposed to have, say, whispered it vehemently! :-)

Guess you don't converse much with German speakers or writing then, do you? <g> You usually have to wait until the last word before you really know what the sentence is about.