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Anonymous Posted 12 years ago
Grammar

Back-shift the tense?

Hi. Please help. Do we need to back-shift the tense of the verb when the verb follows the phrase "I remember reading her saying that," which begins a sentence? For the example sentence below, let's say she said, "I wasn't at the store."
Thank you in advance for your help.

eg,

I remember reading her saying that she wasn't at the store.
  

Top answer

Anonymous I remember reading her saying that she wasn't at the store. Unfortunately that sentence is not natural English. Pehaps you mean "I remember reading that she said that she wasn't at the store".

— Fivejedjon

  • Anonymous I remember reading her saying that she wasn't at the store.
  • Unfortunately that sentence is not natural English.
  • Pehaps you mean "I remember reading that she said that she wasn't at the store".
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2 Answers
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AnonymousI remember reading her saying that she wasn't at the store.
Unfortunately that sentence is not natural English.

Pehaps you mean "I remember reading that she said that she wasn't at the store".
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Thank you, again. Please tell me why you didn't back-shift the tense "wasn't" in your sentence below to "hadn't been."

You wrote:

Pehaps you mean "I remember reading that she said that she wasn't at the store".
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