In Simple past^x, Indirect speech^x

Improving_MY_English wrote: Pioussoul wrote: Improving_MY_English wrote:this sentence in direct speech is in Simple Past and in my CALLAN book, when it was changed into passive they didn't change the tense. and I was wondering why??? can we do that sometimes?? if yes, when??Hi, I'm sorry I am...

Even though the form of the past subjunctive is the same as the form of the simple past, you can distinguish the two by their function: 1. He went to London. 2. If he went to London, he would... The "went" in #2 has nothing to do with the past in terms of time. (Though you might say that the...

"I received a letter a year ago from a woman who had been saved by the people of Le Chambon when she was a young girl." This is the only correct formulation (using the past perfect) and this ISN'T reported or indirect speech. It's just the history of the events, what happened first. The...

Inchoateknowledge wrote: Alienvoord wrote:I wish I knew what is happening next week. I wish I knew what was happening next week.Neither of these is wrong, but the second sounds much more natural to me.In indirect speech, "next" becomes "the next" in past tenseThe second sentence is incorrect.A...

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...

MrPedantic wrote:It seems to me that it's only possible to hear pastness if either a) you put it into indirect speech, e.g. or b) you use the "would" of habitual past action, e.g.If the entire context were about the past, wouldn't it possible to take the 'will' as the simple past? MrPedantic...

Sir, I am a bit confused that how simple past in reported indirect speech gets converted to present perfect tense (not to simple present) in reported direct speech in, St. Patrick said, "All the snakes have been driven out of Ireland, and they have swum to England".

"is" is the 3rd person singular present tense of "to be" "was" is 3rd person simple past of "to be" Reading your sentences, I would put this interpretation on them: I thought he is late. I think this need some speech marks (") Perhaps you are telling someone about something that happened in...

I don't really understand the question either... Konstantin, you're referring to the Conditional with your German example. Indirect speech in German works differently as the Conjunctive has to be used in formal German, which however, can be replaced by the Conditional (would+infinitive). In...