|
ESL Forum:
Techniques and methods
in Language Teaching
Games, activities
and teaching ideas
Grammar and
Linguistics
Teaching material
Concerning
worksheets
Concerning
powerpoints
Concerning online
exercises
Make suggestions,
report errors
Ask for help
Message board
|
ESL forum >
Ask for help > what is the correct answer?
what is the correct answer?
|
Pretty3
|
what is the correct answer?
|
|
Hi, Can you tell me what the correct answer is? He told me last week that he ( bought - had bought ) a new phone. In the teacher �s book, the correct answer is had bought. Why? Best regards, :) |
2 May 2015
|
|
|
|
niksailor
|
|
Good Day! According to the rules of the reported speech, you �ve got to use Past Perfect for a completed action that was prior to the action of the verb in the main clause ("told" to be exact). Present Perfect goes to Past Perfect in the reported speech. Compare the two sentences: He said to me, "I have bought a new phone" (Present Perfect is used to emphasize the result of the action at present) He told me that he had bought a new phone (Past Perfect is used because it is reported speech where tenses are subjected to the rules of the sequence of tenses) Hope this explanation will help you! Hugs, Nick |
2 May 2015
|
|
|
|
|
fefa101
|
|
Hello! The two actions "to tell" and "to buy" both happened in the past but one happened before the other "to buy" happened before "to tell" and as the rule suggests that we use the Past perfect when an action happened before another action in the past so had bought is corrcect . Here is another example: The secretary informed her Boss that she had finshed the report. The action of finishing the report happened before informing. hope it is helpful |
2 May 2015
|
|
|
