Search results for 'tag:Past tenses tag:Indirect speech' matching tags 'Past tenses' and 'Indirect speech'

Re: Reported Speech

miriam — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 17:36:47 GMT

Hello. Sorry to hear you're feeling uncomfortable with this type of activity. But you're not alone: I would be, too!

The sentences lack context, which makes it difficult to tell when tense changes are necessary and when they are not (among other things).

There is one sentence that is wrong without a doubt: # 7. The sentence in direct speech uses the present continuous, and the reporting verb (added) is in the past tense, so it really makes no sense to use a construction with "will" to report that statement. You should either keep the same tense (present continuous) or change to past continuous. Sentence #6 has a similar mistake. The decision, however, is sometimes difficult to make since I have no idea when the original statements were made, when they are/were reported, and, also important, whether what was said still applies at the time of reporting or it doesn't.

The rest of the sentences seem OK in general, except for a few details, such as dates and time references, and person changes. For example, in # 8 you retain "a year ago" instead of changing it to some other expression like "the year before" or "the previous year". Again, though, that would depend on several variables, the moment of reporting among them. Also, in #10 you changed "our customers" to "his customers" (why not "their" customers?).

And you're not consistent with verb changes. In # 1, you shifted from the present perfect to the past perfect. But then, in other sentences, such as # 2, you retained the tense from the sentence in direct speech.

I know this isn't much help, but it will -hopefully- point you in the direction of your mistakes and/or inconsistencies.

When we're taught indirect speech, we're told to remember the "golden rule": change verb tenses. But the truth is that it always depends on the context and the content itself, on the people speaking and the time of speaking.

Give these sentences another try, please, and let's see what happens?

Miriam

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

Hoa Thai — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 01:35:12 GMT

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.

Re: Past or Future

Philip — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 13:41:05 GMT

Yogician wrote:

What I was reading a novel, I came across a sentence which raised doubt that wheter it is talking about the Past Tense or Future Tense. The sentence is -

"When he was grown up he would go and see it."

As per the novel, a child was thinking about an item which he would like to see when he would grow up. In my opinion it should be written in future tense. Then, what is the criteria in using 'was' in the above sentence, that was also followed with 'would'.

It's similar to direct and indirect speech. He said, "when I am grown up I will go see it" ~ He said that when he was grown up he would go see it. I hope this helps.

Re: Direct Narration and Indirect Narration

Yoong Liat — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 08:31:23 GMT

Jackson6612 wrote:

Direct Speech: He said, ''She is a beautiful girl.''

Indirect Speech: He said that she was a beautiful girl.

Direct Speech causes no problem to me but I always find Indirect Speech obscure and weird. Why can't it be said ''he said that she is a beautiful girl''? If it were ''he said that she is a beautiful girl'' then I will be having no problem and that will make complete sense to me. Why can't is be used in place of was? What is the reason for using was?

It is not wrong to say, "She said that she is a beautiful girl." It emphasises that she is indeed a beautiful girl.

It is also not wrong to say, "She said that she was a beautiful girl.' This is because 'was' (a past tense verb) is consistent with the reporting verb 'said' (a past tense verb).

The teacher said, "The world is round" is usually reported as The teacher said that the world is round.

It is not wrong to say The teacher said that the world was round. ('was' is used to be consistent with 'said')

Re: Indirect speech - backshift of tense

Anonymous — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 17:30:06 GMT

The correct version is I said I didn't want to live with her. There should be the consequence of tenses and tha past tense and the present tense in one sentence don't go together.

Re: past tense and if

myprofe — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 16:53:14 GMT

In reported speech it is understood that the verb tense is the result of changing from direct to indirect speech.

1) You say that if you see her you will show her your new bike.

2) You're not saying that if you saw her you would show her your new bike.

Sentence number one in reported speech would be:

You said that if you saw her you would show her your new bike.

Re: indirect speech?

milky — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 04:19:56 GMT

To most English speakers, it has always been acceptable to do that.

Re: indirect speech?

Rothkowitz — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 00:16:28 GMT

to clarify this even further...so as to hopefully get an answer

we say "i wish i knew what you WERE thinking right now"..."were", backshifting because of "knew"

but i am asking in these examples if "could say"...functions a past tense...if it does...do we have the same type of situation

(see above)

Re: indirect speech?

Kooyeen — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 23:55:29 GMT

You are right, those are not really subjunctives but... they are kinds of subjunctives! If those "was" are not past tenses, what else could they be? The meaning is like the one of the subjunctive tense.

Rothkowitz wrote:

do you see...my question is still unanswered

Sorry, but the question in my thread is unanswered too! So let's wait for somebody else.

Re: indirect speech?

Rothkowitz — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 23:28:52 GMT

well not really

you see this is not a case of subjunctive....as i said in my first postr

(cite fowler here)...there is no sequence of moods in english...

therefore, for example, we do not say "if i were to say i were happy"

we say, instead, "if i were to say i was happy..."

you see...therefore after the "could say" in these sentences there seems to be no further need for subjunctive...so my question is:

are we backshifting the verb here because "could" is a past tense auxiliary...

is it therefore the case that both

"i wish i could tell you what this was"

"i wish i could tell you what this is".........are acceptable

do you see...my question is still unanswered

i know how to use the subjunctive