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Direct reported speech:

'I disagree,' John would probably have said.

Indirect reported speech:

John would probably have said that he disagrees/disagreed.

Which is correct?

user58319
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    Does this answer your question? Is the concept of "backshifted past tense" in reported speech applicable to other types of subordinate clauses? We usually "backshift" in such contexts, so it's He said his name was* John* and John said he disagreed.** The "would probably" conditional element of your example makes no difference here. – FumbleFingers Mar 05 '22 at 15:53
  • So, a perfect conditional is a past tense, whereas a present perfect is not: 'John has just said that he disagrees.' and not 'John has just said he disagreed.' – user58319 Mar 06 '22 at 18:20
  • No, it's not that "a perfect conditional is a past tense". Per previous comment, the "would probably" conditional element of your example is irrelevant. What's going on here is called *backshifting. That's why we often say John said that he disagreed* rather than ...that he disagrees. But note that *John would have said that he was** British* and ...that he is* British* are both syntactically fine. It's just that idiomatically the backshifted version is the more common choice. – FumbleFingers Mar 06 '22 at 19:09

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