Indirect speech

Question

Hi teachers,The situation:A girl is going to xyz place in her car and sees a friend of hers walking on the pavement. She stops her car and asks "Where are you going, Mike?"Mike replies, "To the gym." and starts walking again.The girl steps out of her car and joins her friend - Mike.She says: (1)-you said you were going to the gym. (2)-Well, the gym is closed. (3)-Tell me, Mike, why were you going to the gym?Here are my questions, teachers:- Since the girl asked her friend "Where are you going, Mike?" a short ago, would it have been correct if she had said "are going" in her reported sentence?- In the third sentence - "Tell me, Mike, why were you going to the gym?" - isn't it wrong to say 'were'? Why did she say "were going" in her #3? Shouldn't the girl say "why are you going"? Since Mike (her friend) is still walking towards gym.- Would you call the third sentence a reported sentence? Is it always essential to shift the tenses one step back when the reporting verb is in a past tense?Thank you teachers.

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

LaboriousShe says: (1)-You said you were going to the gym. (2)-Well, the gym is closed. (3)-Tell me, Mike, why were you going to the gym? ...
Since the girl asked her friend "Where are you going, Mike?" a short time ago, would it have been correct if she had said "are going" in her reported sentence?

You said you were going to the gym is the standard formulation. You said you are going to the gym is, however, grammatically correct.

LaboriousIn the third sentence - "Tell me, Mike, why were you going to the gym?" - isn't it wrong to say 'were'?

No. It's not wrong.

LaboriousWhy did she say "were going" in ~~her~~ #3?

You'd have to ask her. But seriously, there are two possible reasons that come to mind. First, it seems to be an abbreviated form of Why did you tell me that you were going to the gym?where the tenses match. Second, it may be a case of 'the past of politeness', where we ask a question in the past tense so we don't appear to be too direct. (This second explanation is less likely because she originally asked in the present tense, but she may be changing her approach the second time she asks.)

LaboriousShouldn't the girl say "why are you going"?

You are repeating yourself. You are asking the same thing you asked above (quoted in bold) — just in different words. It won't change the answer just because you ask again.

LaboriousWould you call the third sentence a reported sentence?

Not really, even though it's almost implicitly so as described above.

LaboriousIs it always essential to shift the tenses one step back when the reporting verb is in a past tense?

No, but note that the question is not relevant to this example, where present tense verbs are shifted to the past tense.

CJ

Laborious · Answer

Thank you very much, sir, for replying and for correcting the mistakes in my post.

The girl: you said you were going to the gym. Well, the gym is closed. Why did you tell me that you were going to the gym?

Mike: I told you that I was going to the gym because I didn't know that the gym <was or is> closed.

Dear CJ, which form should I use - "was" or "is" - here?Since he NOW knows that the gym is closed and it's still closed when he is speaking or uttering, will it be correct to say 'is closed'?

Thank you once again, CJ.

CalifJim · Answer

LaboriousWill it be correct to say "is", since he NOW knows that the gym is closed?

You are concentrating too much on the word "correct". Quite often when you ask these questions about reported speech and about the sequence of tenses (the matching of tenses), you show examples which are correct whether you use the present or the past. But it is not enough to be correct when you learn a language. You also need to be idiomatic. That is, you need to speak the way native speakers speak, even if that does not seem logical to you.

When you add comments like, "since he NOW knows that the gym is closed", you are torturing yourself by using too much logic.

We say I didn't know that the gym was closed, even if we just found out that the gym is closed.

You'll almost never get in trouble if you always use the past after 'knew that' and 'thought that' and 'said that'.

CJ

Indirect speech

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