Close the door when you go out

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Anonymous

#211406 Fri, 31 Mar 06 05:22 PM

X : Close the door when you go out.

Y: X told me to close the door when I go out / when I went out

which one is correct? Go out or went out? Do we have to change the clause after when in reported speech? Is it ok if we leave it as is.

Anonymous

Clauses

pieanne

#211411 Fri, 31 Mar 06 05:41 PM

Either are OK.

You can keep the present tense ("go out") if the action of "going out" is not too far away in the past : "Turn down the radio, I can't hear her! What did she say?" - "she told you to close the door when you go out!"

On the other hand, you use the simple past when the "going out" is situated further in the past. (This is an investigation about a murder). Police inspector: "The front door was open. Don't you close it at night?" - " Yes we do! X told W to close it when she went out."

pieanne

Joined on Thu, Jan 20 2005

South of France ...But I'm Belgian!

Veteran Member (7,512)

I'm glad to help, but I'm not a native! And please excuse my typos...

Tenses, Present Tenses, Simple Past

Anonymous

#211414 Fri, 31 Mar 06 05:49 PM

Pieanne wrote:

Either are OK.

Thank you Pieanne!I'm glad you answered my question but one more thing. Why "either are" but not "either is"? Is it a correct usage. "either" must follow singular, musn't it?" as in "either is OK" Thinking [*-)]

Anonymous

pieanne

#211417 Fri, 31 Mar 06 05:55 PM

You're quite right! Sorry! Sloppy thinking/typing...

I should have written "both are OK", or "Either is OK"!

pieanne

Anonymous

#211637 Sat, 01 Apr 06 02:17 PM

With all due respect, I am going offer my two cents.

In your sentence, "X told me to close the door when I go out /when I went out."

To me, the correct sentence is (because it sounds as that in my ear) "X told me to close the door when I go out." and not "X told me to close the door when I went out."

Why? As i said before, it doesn't sound right. It might sound right if it is changed to:

X told me to close the door when X was going out.

Anonymous

pieanne

#211644 Sat, 01 Apr 06 02:46 PM

If you say "X told me to close the door when I went out", it means X told me that at the moment when I went out. I think it's a correct sentence...

pieanne