Benjamin: "I often have a big hamburger." · Hannah: "They live in Boston." · Tyler: "Ian doesn't invite girls to his parties." · Dominic: "She understands Japanese ...
Normally, the tense in reported speech is one tense back in time from the tense in direct speech: She said, "I am tired." = She said that she was tired.
Sometimes, backshifting is optional in reported speech. When the speaker articulating the reported speech uses the past tense in the main verb but the situation ...
Aug 25 2005 15:20:14. Philip. direct speech : i am ill. indirect speech : He said that he was ill. They are true sentences becaus indirect speech is past and you must speak past tense. He said that he was ill. You must understand he is ill now. For e.g. Kelly: I can't come to party this evening because i am very tired.
In indirect speech, we often use a tense which is 'further back' in the past (e.g. worked) than the tense originally used (e.g. work ). This is called 'backshift'. We also may need to change other words that were used, for example pronouns.
BACKSHIFT OF TENSES Verb tenses DIRECT SPEECH REPORTED SPEECH PRONOUNSVerb tenses Simple Present Do you I am a carpenter. He said that he was a carpenter. Simple past Present continuous I’m working at the moment. He said that he was working at that moment. Are you feeling Past continuous Simple Past I was there last year.
03.07.2021 · Past tense in indirect speech. When we translate a sentence written in the past into indirect speech, we can leave it unchanged or we can change the past to the Past Perfect. He says, “I saw this movie” He said that he saw that movie. He said that he had seen that movie. What if in direct speech the main verb is already in Past Perfect?
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". When do we use backshift? We use backshift when it is logical to use backshift.
25.02.2008 · Philip. direct speech : i am ill. indirect speech : He said that he was ill. They are true sentences becaus indirect speech is past and you must speak past tense. He said that he was ill. You must understand he is ill now. For e.g. Kelly: I can't come to party this evening because i am very tired. Mike: I see.