Reported speech "was" stays the same or it becomes "had been"?

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ESL forum > Grammar and Linguistics > Reported speech "was" stays the same or it becomes "had been"?

Reported speech "was" stays the same or it becomes "had been"?

oyra

Reported speech "was" stays the same or it becomes "had been"?

I know that both are possible but some say that it should stay as "was". Do you have any information on the topic?

18 May 2009

Zora

Hi oyra,

There are two beliefs:

One that there really isn �t a past of a past tense, so "was/were" in the Reported Speech, doesn �t need to be "had been".

Then there are the purists that insist that there is a "Past" of a Past tense and that is the Past Perfect tense.

I am partial to accepting both ways, but sometimes, depending on the sentence it should perhaps be one and not the other. Especially, if the "was" is referring to something that happened long ago in the past and wasn �t recent... THEN I would use the Past Perfect.

"We were in Paris last year". They said that they were in Paris last year. (Not far off in time... and you could use the PP if you wanted.)

"We were in Paris before the war." - They said that they had been in Paris before the war. (Far off in time... so I would use the PP and not the PS...)

18 May 2009

manuelanunes3

Hi

It is acceptable to leave it in the Simple Past as it was in direct speech (was) or use it in the Past Perfect (had been).

Best wishes

Manuela

18 May 2009

Hello Oyra,

There are two ways to turn direct speech into indirect speeech: with backshift ( changing the tense) and without backshift.

Ue is no backshift ( no tense change) if the reporting verb is in the present tense:

Direct Speech: "John:I like to swim".

Indirect speech: John says he likes to swim

or

John said he liked to swim.

I also agree with Zora �s point about the time an action occured and about accepting both. Many teachers actually teach both so I would say it �s up to you.

I hope I �ve helped,

Maria

18 May 2009