Search results for 'tag:Present continuous tag:Direct speech' matching tags 'Present continuous' and 'Direct speech'

Re: she's talking about or talked about

Yoong Liat — Mon, 26 May 2008 19:01:48 GMT

I walked to the nurse desk and asked for a bottled water and one of the nurses told me that I couldn't take any liquid before surgery. Instead, she told me to get some rest. I walked back to my room and told my mom. Mom said, "Sounds like she knows what she's talking about."

You're using direct speech (the sentence in bold). This means that what you are talking about happened not long ago and therefore the present continuous tense is fine. When someone asks you to have some food and you have eaten earlier, you will turn down the offer, saying, "No thanks. I have eaten." You've to use the present perfedt tense, not the past perfect tense.

I hope this gives you a clear picture why the present tense is used for something which has taken place recently.

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: Direct & Indirect

Aastha — Fri, 30 Jul 2004 08:16:00 GMT

There are 8 rules for direct- indirect speech
Rama said to Mohan, " I get up at 6'o clock"

Here :
Rama said to Mohan REPORTING VERB
" I get up at 6'o clock" REPORTED SPEECH

Rule 1. If the reporting verb is in past tense than the tense of the reported speech will change as follows :
1. Present Indefinite tense will change into past indefinite.
2. Present Continuous tense will change into past continuous.
3. Present perfect tense will change into past perfect.
4. Present perfect continuous will change into Past perfect continuous
5. Past Indefinite will --------- into past perfect
6. Past Continuous will------------ past perfect continuous
7. Past perfect WILL NOT CHANGE
8.past perfect continuous WILL NOT CHANGE
9. will, shall would
10. may might
11. can could

Said to will change into told

For example : she had said to me, "I've not beaten her."
she had told me that she had not beaten her.

Remember SON formula

S-> SUBJECT
O -> OBJECT
N - > NO CHANGE

FIRST PERSON WILL CHANGE INTO SUBJECT
SECOND PERSON WILL CHANGE INTO OBJECT
THIRD PERSON NO CHANGE

In my given example "I've not beaten you"

here I is the first person so it will change into subject where subject is she
and her is third person( objective/possesive form) so it will not change.

Did you get this rule? Should I write here all the other rules.