GUIDE ENGLISH GRAMMAR BOOK

PAGE 351
268 Tenses in indirect speech
268 Tenses in indirect speech
1 Verbs of reporting
a
A verb of reporting can be in a present tense.
The forecast says it's going to rain.
Karen tells me she knows the way.
I've heard they might close this place down.
Here the present tense suggests that the words were spoken only a short time ago
and are still relevant. For written words, • 64(2f).
After a present-tense verb of reporting, we do not change the tense in indirect
speech.
'I'm hungry.' Robert says he's hungry.
NOTE
After a present-tense verb of reporting, the past tense means past time.
The singer says he took drugs when he was younger.
b
When we see the statement as in the past, the verb of reporting is in a past tense.
Robert said he's hungry.
Karen told me yesterday that she knows the way.
We can use the past even if the words were spoken only a moment ago.
2 The meaning of the tense change
When the verb of reporting is in a past tense, we sometimes change the tense in
indirect speech from present to past.
a
b
c
d
If the statement is still relevant, we do not usually change the tense, although we
can do.
7 know the way.' Karen told me she knows/knew the way, so there's no need to
take a map.
'I'm hungry.' Robert said he's/he was hungry, so we're going to eat.
We can change the tense when it is uncertain if the statement is true. Compare
these examples.
We'd better not go out. The forecast said it's going to rain.
I hope it doesn't rain. ~ It might. The forecast said it was going to rain.
The present tense (is) makes the rain sound more likely. We are more interested in
the fact of the rain than in the forecast. The past tense (was) makes the rain less
real. We are expressing the idea that it is a forecast, not a fact.
We use the past tense when we are reporting objectively, when we do not want to
suggest that the information is necessarily true.
'I'm not interested in money.' Tom told me he wasn't interested in money.
'Our policies will be good for The party said its policies would be good for the
the country.'
country.
When a statement is untrue or out of date, then we change the tense.
Karen told me she knew the way, but she took the wrong turning.
The forecast said it was going to rain, and it did.