In Present tenses^x, Direct speech^x, Tenses^x

Ellisa: This is a very long passage, and your other post seems to be even longer. The editor at this web site makes it difficult to make corrections to long passages. Also, many teachers do not want to devote a long time working on a single post. If you post only one paragraph at a time, then...

Hi,You wrote: I learn from a grammar book that a small set of verbs of communication such as "tell", "say" and "hear" can be used in simple present tense even though the act of telling, saying or hearing happened in the past. for example, "Bill tells me you are...

Hi there: I learn from a grammar book that a small set of verbs of communication such as "tell", "say" and "hear" can be used in simple present tense even though the act of telling, saying or hearing happened in the past. for example, "Bill tells me you are...

I interpret this as reported speech.In direct speech, I would write:In 1862, A. Lincoln said, " I will free any slave that lives in the South." Translated to reported speech, the statement would be: In 1862, Lincoln said that he would free any slave that lives in the South.

Let us recast the sentence in direct speech, that is, you are speaking to Mark, "When you arrive (simple present tense is most suitable here - I wonder you can use any other tense), we shall/will go out for dinner."When you turn that into an indirect speech, the sentence will become,...

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."...

Sorry for starting it again, but I am still not quite sure in this case. I was taught that when talking about universal truths or general knowledge, the present tense should be used in indirect speech. By the way, I suppose you are just making up an example quickly. I think you know the sun IS...

I'm not a native speaker but I am pretty sure the version with the present tense "I though I know" sounds quite odd. You could hear something similar when "I know" is reported as direct speech, or is not really linked to "I thought":There was this girl, you know,...

Hi Viceidol,For reported / indirect speech, we convert the present tense to the past tense as shown below:will, wouldcan, couldmust, had toshall, shouldmay, might Therefore, #2 is correct.

Yoong Liat wrote: The teacher said, "The world is round." In reported speech, it would be The teacher said that the world is round. One of my English usage books says it can be reported as The teacher said that the world was round. ( was consistent with said in tense) What do you think? ...