Perhaps I’m mistaken, but shouldn’t there be options to answer this grammar point without adding か before と思ったら?
Even in the grammar description, it says removing か does happen and simply softens the sentence. I tried answering without か and it sort of marked it wrong (as in, it added か for me but was still red). Am I misunderstanding this?
Thanks!
Usually when we put something in a caution section that is technically still correct, it is reflecting something that can be seen in the wild, but that we don’t want people to accidentally memorize over the main point, as that is generally the one that will appear on exams, which our reviews are geared towards.
However, we should have a warning for this that would be something along the lines of ‘Can you try an unabbreviated version?’.
In connection, we have recently written a whole stack of default hints as above and are planning on revamping all of our grammar points soon with far more leading/directive hints.
In regard to the omission of か itself, although the nuance is the same, grammatically it changes the previous phrase into a simple quotation rather than a question, so in that way they are quite different.
I see. That makes sense, especially when considering the goal of passing the JLPT exam.
Thanks so much!!