She said that she would/should marry him.(Which one should I use?)

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Viceidol

#480877 Sun, 24 Feb 08 01:18 AM

original: She said, "I shall marry Tom."

reported speech:1. She said that she shall marry Tom.

2. She said that she should marry Tom.

3. She said that she would marry Tom.

May I ask among those 3 sentences, which of them is the correct one? Please give me your opinion, thank you very much for your reply!

Viceidol

Joined on Wed, Jul 11 2007

Taiwan

Regular Member (535)

Hoa Thai

#480881 Sun, 24 Feb 08 01:35 AM

Hi Viceidol,

For reported / indirect speech, we convert the present tense to the past tense as shown below:

will, would

can, could

must, had to

shall, should

may, might

Therefore, #2 is correct.

Hoa Thai

Joined on Mon, Oct 15 2007

Vietnam

Contributing Member (1,100)

Best Regards - Hoa Thai

Feebs11

#480882 Sun, 24 Feb 08 01:38 AM

Within the context of the sentence, #1 and #3 are acceptable statements that she is going to marry him.

She said she should would imply some doubts.

Feebs11

Joined on Thu, Nov 23 2006

Senior Member (4,928)

Grammar Geek

#480920 Sun, 24 Feb 08 05:04 AM

This is a tricky question because first person shall = third person will. I would first translate "I shall" to "she will" - then you do the tense backshift thing - she would.

Grammar Geek

Joined on Tue, Jan 10 2006

Pennsylvania, USA

Veteran Member (15,590)

Barbara, who answers in American English.

Tenses