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Guest Posted 21 years ago
Grammar

Indirect

Here is a line from voice of america report , website, on 14th Jan: The Bush administration said Thursday it is withholding another ------. My query is, should it not be ' -said thursday it WAS-- ', since it is a reported speech?
  

Top answer

Hello Guest I myself would say 'was', if the original statement was in the present; or 'would be' if it was in the future. But some native speakers do use the tense of the original statement, in reported speech. Maybe they think they'll be misunderstood if they don't.

— MrPedantic

  • Hello Guest I myself would say 'was', if the original statement was in the present; or 'would be' if it was in the future.
  • But some native speakers do use the tense of the original statement, in reported speech.
  • Maybe they think they'll be misunderstood if they don't.
  • MrP
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1 Answers
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Hello Guest

I myself would say 'was', if the original statement was in the present; or 'would be' if it was in the future.

But some native speakers do use the tense of the original statement, in reported speech. Maybe they think they'll be misunderstood if they don't.

MrP
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