She answered is literally “The woman answered and said to him.” (See verses 10 and 15.)

I don’t have a husband may be rendered in some languages “there is no man to whom I am married” or “I am not now married to a man.”

In the second part of this verse the Greek employs direct discourse embedded in direct discourse: “You are right when you say, ‘I don’t have a husband.’ ” Good News Translation restructures it as indirect within direct discourse: “… you say you don’t have a husband….” In this manner Good News Translation avoids the use of “quotes within quotes” and provides a conversational style more natural in English. Other translations which employ indirect discourse here are New English Bible, New American Bible, and Goodspeed.

The relation between you are right and you say you don’t have a husband may be indicated in some languages not as a temporal relation, translated in Good News Translation as when, but as an expression of means, for example, “By saying you don’t have a husband you are telling the truth.” It may also be expressed as cause, for example, “Because you say you don’t have a husband you are saying what is right.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1980. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .