Grammar: Sentence: Quoting and reporting speech and thoughts

Reporting speech and thoughts

Tense in indirect speech: Misconceptions

The relationship between the tenses in the reporting clause and those in the report clause given in the summary is a general guide and exceptions will be common. For example, when the verb in the reporting clause is in present tense, we are free to use present, past or future tense in the reported clause, depending on the meaning we are seeking to express: 

	present tense (if what we are reporting is still true or relevant)
		The look on Bozo's face   tells   Mrs Gong // that he   is   hiding something.                                    present tense                             present tense
	past tense (if what we are reporting happened before the time of reporting)
		Bozo   claims   // that he    met   his friend by accident.        present tense                  past tense
	future tense (if what we are reporting has not happened yet but will happen later)
		Miss Lee's letter  explains  // that the students will arrive home late on the day of their trip.                        present tense                                       future tense

Because it is not obligatory to shift the tense into a further 'past' when changing direct speech to indirect speech, it is not a good idea to do the kind of exercise that has students mechanically changing sentences from direct speech to indirect speech, without putting them into any meaningful context.