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I am learning Reported Speech in the Past now. In my English textbook there is a rule: "When it is provided when exactly the action happened, you can leave the Past Simple as it is". I was looking it up on the internet, but I haven't found anything related to this yet. So, do I need to write an action with specified time in the Past Simple or do I need to use the rules to write actions in the Reported Speech? For example, do I need to write

  • He said that he finished writing the letter at 9 o'clock yesterday

or

  • He said that he had finished writing the letter at 9 o'clock yesterday                           ?
Edwin Ashworth
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eugene
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  • I don't think "exact" in the timing means the actual time, it's relative to the other actions. It is obvious here that he finished writing before he said about it. So had may not be essential to get the meaning. In other cases, it will be required to be clearer. HTH. – Kris Mar 20 '20 at 11:23
  • Welcome to ELU. See also [ell.se] Good Luck. – Kris Mar 20 '20 at 11:24
  • Do it however your teacher tells you to do it. Certainly in standard English, past simple is often used even when strict rules might suggest past perfect (particularly when it's unambiguous - see any number of questions on past tenses here), but if you get marked down for that, it's not much help. – Stuart F Aug 09 '23 at 08:50
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    Does this answer your question? Past Perfect and Past Simple in AmE Daniel Douglas writes: 'The past perfect often seems to be used in ... English to avoid confusion about the relationship between two past events. Where such confusion is impossible, the simple past is often used.' With your example, both variants are available and without further context equally suitable (except that there is a general tendency to simplify structures wherever possible). – Edwin Ashworth Aug 09 '23 at 11:23
  • See also Shoe's answer at reporting using past simple tense rather than backshifting – Edwin Ashworth Aug 09 '23 at 11:36

0 Answers0