In Subjunctives^x, Direct speech^x

i can't seem to find a hard-and-fast rule for a situation like this: "I wish I could say (that) I was happy" (if the speaker is attempting to express that he/she IS NOT HAPPY RIGHT NOW) would it be incorrect to express this as: "I wish I could say I'm happy".... one hears this sort of thing...

Dear teachers, I'm learning how to build up "sentence transformations" exercises. Would you please help to build sentence (a) so that sentence (b) can be found? 1) a) Would it be possible to build a sentence in direct speech where we could have an expression other than "it's been ages since"? =...

Clive wrote: As they said when I registered her at the gym, the fact was that the gym had this policy that (or by which/under which) she would be reimbursed if she were not to like it. (or if she didn't like it - a more common way to say it) How English Works wrote: future in the...

Hello, both of you! I think Christophe's sentences are related to reported speech in the past, not to subjonctive. Direct speech: "But you are my friend!" (more or less!) Rep speech: "I thought that you were my friend" On the other hand, this would be a subjunctive: "He always behaved as if he...

We use "think" in the past simple or past perfect tense to indicate a belief that was previously held but that has been shown to be incorrect. For example: I didn't think she was going. (past simple) I had thought that she wasn't going. (past perfect) The exception is in converting from direct...

To keep up the actual aim of the thread: Another problem that I had while learning English was the backshift of tenses in Indirect Speech. While in German you would always use the subjunctive when you want to express something in Indirect Speech, in English you've to backshift every tense. This...