The Word Cloud

Here's a question I've been meaning to get clarified, please. It's to do with capitalisation in quoted speech.

'If it's not too much trouble,' he said, 'could you pass me that book?'
'I wonder if I could trouble you,' he said. 'Could you pass me that book?'
He said, 'If it's not too much trouble, could you pass me that book?'

Now the first two versions are fine. In the first, the speech is all one sentence - no capital C for 'could'. In the second, the speech is two sentences, so 'could' has a capital C.

Is the third example also right? Even though the 'if' comes mid-sentence, as it is the start of the speech it needs to be capitalised, right? Or not?

I'm not the greatest person to ask re punctuation, but I have to say it would be right. It's a new sentence for 'He' so should start with a capital. If it is a continuation, with something unfinished before 'he said' then it would be a small I. I think you have it right Tony.

Yes, you've got it right, Tony. And you're correct in thinking that the first word of someone's speech is always capitalized.

Thanks, girls.