Reported speech: To shift or not to shift

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Pastsimple

#257182 Fri, 18 Aug 06 06:44 PM

The teacher said that ice melts at 32 F. - That's pretty obvious but what about:

Lucy said that she first met / had first met her husband in a supermarket.

I'm pretty sure that it's not necessary to shift the tense but which is more natural / common? With or without the tense shift?

And what about:

Lucy said that she first met / had first met her husband in 2003.

Here, I'd surely use the past simple. I'm not sure whether the past perfect would be natural at all here (because of the date).

Thanks in advance, as always.

Pastsimple

Joined on Thu, Feb 16 2006

Czech Republic, Europe

Full Member (303)

If you are a native speaker and find any grammar or stylistic mistakes in my posts, don't hesitate to tell me! I will really appreciate that.

Dates, Tenses, Past perfect, Past simple

CalifJim

#257190 Fri, 18 Aug 06 07:22 PM

When the original statement has the simple past tense, the backshifted version is often unnecessary (I hesitate to say never necessary), but it's never wrong, either. In your examples, the simple past is the most common, in my opinion.

Note that the past perfect serves as the backshifted tense of both the simple past and the present perfect.

"I've seen that movie."
She said that she had seen that movie.

"I saw that movie (in 2003)."
She said that she had seen that movie (in 2003).

So the "rule" that the present perfect cannot be used with an adverbial which indicates a specific point in time does not apply to the past perfect tense.

CJ

CalifJim

Joined on Mon, Aug 2 2004

California

Veteran Member (17,566)

"There are no facts, only interpretations" - Nietzsche

Tenses, Past perfect, Simple past, Present perfect, Past tenses