Dec 12, 2019 · I know that the rules of backshifting recommend changing the past simple to the past perfect when the reporting verb is in the past tense ("said"), but for some reason the past simple sounds natural to me in this situation. For a little more context, please consider that there are three different characters - A, B, and C.
Verbs in the past tenses backshift to the past perfect, past progressive to past perfect progressive. “Where did you hear that?” She asked where I had heard ...
> > tense is backshifted to the past perfect verb form in a reported speech. ... > > "Alice phoned while you were in the bath". ... > > She told me that Alice had ...
12.12.2019 · I know that the rules of backshifting recommend changing the past simple to the past perfect when the reporting verb is in the past tense ("said"), but for some reason the past simple sounds natural to me in this situation. For a little more context, please consider that there are three different characters - A, B, and C.
May 17, 2020 · These backshifts to past perfect sound quite weird to me as I would keep the past simple. However, I can't figure out why and my grammar books aren't helping. In the first case, for example, one could argue that since she is not 14 anymore the condition is not true anymore hence making the tense backshift necessary.
Reported speech simple past backshift. Reported speech rules and examples. Simple Past. The simple past tense usually changes to the past perfect in reported speech. Change of tenses. The tenses, word-order, pronouns may be different from those in the direct speech sentence.
In simple terms, the structure of reported speech is: reporting clause [+ conjunction] + reported clause. he was hungry. John's original words: "I am hungry." We sometimes change the tense of the reported clause by moving it back one tense. For example, present simple goes back one tense to past simple. We call this change " backshift ".
Reported Speech Backshift / Past to Past Perfect - Positive Statements. Fill in the pronouns and the Past Perfect. “I did all the exercises.”. Jake said (that) all the exercises. “I phoned Dad.”. Sue said (that) Dad. “I lost the keys”. Ben said (that) the keys. “I wrote a lot of emails.”.