In Quoting^x, Simple past^x

Yankee wrote:In Kooyeen's sentence "That was the first time I bought fish there", the simple past tense is just fine. I don't think even the most prescriptive grammarian would have a problem with that sentence. On the contrary, without some kind of clear justification for the past perfect...

CalifJim wrote:With one person having the preference (I'd rather) that another person (you, he, ...) do or not do something, both bare infinitive (do / not do) and simple past (did, didn't do) are used. Personally, I can't even decide which I use more. I'd rather you my research...

While doing some reported/indirect speech stuff (again!) lots of questions has come to my mind. Here are some of them. 1/ 'I never eat meat', (Bill said/explained) -> turns into -> Bill said/explained (that) he never ate meat. - This is the normal way in which most of us would...