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Imantaghavi Posted 12 years ago
Grammar
Reported Speech
Hi,
1- One use of reported speech says that when the sequence of events is clear it is not necessary to report past tenses with a shift into the past perfect.
e.g: Before seventeenth century no one knew what the function of heart was.
Reported>> The lecturer explained that before seventeenth century no one knew what the function of heart was.
How about the following one? Is it possible, too?
The lecturer explained that before seventeenth century no one had known what the function of heart had been.
What I mean here is that if the use of "past simple" or "past perfect" is optional or not.
2- Another use says reporting verbs that express the importance of an action are often followed by "should". In American English this is less common and the subjunctive is used. Would you please give me an example of subjunctive?
Thank you in advance,
Iman
1- One use of reported speech says that when the sequence of events is clear it is not necessary to report past tenses with a shift into the past perfect.
e.g: Before seventeenth century no one knew what the function of heart was.
Reported>> The lecturer explained that before seventeenth century no one knew what the function of heart was.
How about the following one? Is it possible, too?
The lecturer explained that before seventeenth century no one had known what the function of heart had been.
What I mean here is that if the use of "past simple" or "past perfect" is optional or not.
2- Another use says reporting verbs that express the importance of an action are often followed by "should". In American English this is less common and the subjunctive is used. Would you please give me an example of subjunctive?
Thank you in advance,
Iman
Top answer
imantaghavi What I mean here is that if the use of "past simple" or "past perfect" is optional or not. Past perfect is an option for emphasis. imantaghavi 2- Another use says reporting verbs that express the importance of an action are often followed by "should".
- imantaghavi What I mean here is that if the use of "past simple" or "past perfect" is optional or not.
- Past perfect is an option for emphasis.
- imantaghavi 2- Another use says reporting verbs that express the importance of an action are often followed by "should".
- In American English this is less common and the subjunctive is used.
- Would you please give me an example of subjunctive?
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2 Answers
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imantaghaviWhat I mean here is that if the use of "past simple" or "past perfect" is optional or not.Past perfect is an option for emphasis.
imantaghavi2- Another use says reporting verbs that express the importance of an action are often followed by "should". In American English this is less common and the subjunctive is used.
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Hi MM,
Thank you very much.
How about this one. The following sentence has been extracted from an activity in the book and has a mistake.
We agreed that we all spend the night at Jim's house.
The mistake is the lack of the use of "would/should/could/might" before "all". Why is it so?
Regards,
Iman
Thank you very much.
How about this one. The following sentence has been extracted from an activity in the book and has a mistake.
We agreed that we all spend the night at Jim's house.
The mistake is the lack of the use of "would/should/could/might" before "all". Why is it so?
Regards,
Iman
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