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One of the trickiest aspects of English grammar is dealing with
reported speech, or what’s also called indirect speech. Basically,
we are taught that when the reporting verb is in the past tense, the
operative verb of the reported utterance takes one step back from
the present into the past. For instance, assume that an officemate
by the name of Jennifer told us this yesterday: “I am unhappy with
my job.” Today, when we report that remark to somebody else, we
need to change the verb in the utterance from simple present to
simple past and say: “Yesterday, Jennifer said she was unhappy
with her job.”
We must keep in mind, though, that it’s not
only the operative verb in the utterance that changes in reported
speech. The first-person form of the pronoun in the utterance
(“I” in this case) changes to its third-person form (to the
pronoun “she” or to the proper name “Jennifer,” depending on
the choice of the person reporting the utterance), and the adjective
indicating possession in the original utterance (“my”) changes
to the third-person form (“her”).
The change from present to past tense in
reported speech is only for starters, of course. In the various
other tenses, the operative verb of the utterance likewise generally
moves one tense backwards in time when the reporting verb is in the
past tense, as follows:
From present progressive (assuming that the
speaker is male): “I am having a problem with one of my
students.” To past progressive: “He said he was having a problem
with one of his students.”
From simple present perfect: “I have been
bypassed for promotion by my boss.” To simple past perfect: “He
said he had been bypassed for promotion by his boss.”
From present perfect progressive: “I have been
analyzing the problem but to no avail.” To past perfect
progressive: “He said he had been analyzing the problem but to no
avail.”
From simple past: “I saw the movie twice.”
To past perfect: “He said he had seen the movie twice.” (If the
act being reported happened very close or almost simultaneous to the
utterance, however, the simple past may also be a logical tense for
the operative verb of the reported utterance: “He said he saw the
movie twice.”)
From past progressive: “I was taking
medication then.” To past perfect progressive: “He said he had
been taking medication at the time.”
However, when the operative verb of the reported
utterance is in the past perfect or in the past perfect progressive,
no change is possible for it in reported speech; it stays in that
tense. Utterance in the past perfect: “The bridge had collapsed by
the time I reached the river.” Reported speech: “He said the
bridge had collapsed by the time he reached the river.” Utterance
in the past perfect progressive: “I had been depending on that
scholarship grant for four years.” Reported speech: “He said he
had been depending on that scholarship grant for four years.”
We must also always remember that when the
operative verb in the utterance is in the modal form, we need to
change the modal auxiliary to its past tense form in reported
speech. Thus, “will” changes to “would,” “can” to
“could,” “must” to “had to,” and “may” to
“might.”
As examples, “I will find her without any
difficulty” becomes “He said he would find her without any
difficulty” in reported speech; “I can beat her anytime in
chess” becomes “He said he could beat her anytime in chess”;
“All past due accounts must be settled at once” becomes “He
said that all past due accounts had to be settled at once”; and
“I may leave anytime” becomes “He said he might leave
anytime.”
Next, we will discuss the special cases of
reported speech and the need to change the time signifiers in
utterances to conform to the sense of reported speech.
j8carillo@yahoo.com
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