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Ticce Posted 16 years ago
Grammar

Reported speech

If we say something in reported speech we abide by the sequence of tenses

They said: "He is a good student. "

They said that he WAS a good student.

How do we handle it if the conditional mood is used? Do we abide by the sequence of tenses?

They would say: " He is a good student."

They would say that

a) he WAS a good student.
b) he is a good student.
c) something else?????
  

Top answer

" If he were here, they would say that a) he WAS a good student. b) he is a good student. c) something else??

— Ticce

  • " If he were here, they would say that a) he WAS a good student.
  • b) he is a good student.
  • c) something else??
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4 Answers
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If he were here, they would say: " He is a good student."
If he were here, they would say that
a) he WAS a good student.
b) he is a good student.
c) something else??
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TicceThey would say: " He is a good student."
You may not have internalised what reported speech consists in. In your example reported speech would involve three people or groups of people. Let's call them A, B and C.

Person A tells person B something, and person B relates what he has been told to person C later on. The problem is that they
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I have reclaimed my mistake in the second post.

Could you commetn in this sentence

"If he were here, they would say: " He is a good student."" (FUTURE meaning)
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TicceHow do we handle it if the conditional mood is used? Do we abide by the sequence of tenses?
Yes and no. would in the main clause takes the present or past in the subordinate clause, depending on whether the subordinate clause is really about the past or not. But here's the catch. If the subordinate clause is really about the present, you can use
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