English grammar - Roger Berry 2012

B12.2 Conclusion
B12 Reporting
Section B Development

The rules for ’backshift’ in reported speech are one of the great ’deceptions’ in English teaching, for the following reasons:

□ when we report what someone else said using reported speech, we normally base it on the meaning that we remember, not on the exact words that we heard. If the exact wording is important, then we will use direct speech. Exercises that present the direct speech and ask learners to transform it into reported speech are artificial and misleading.

□ the choice of tense (and of other features, such as personal pronouns) in reported speech is subject to the same rules of usage that apply elsewhere in English. In the case of tense ’change’ the deciding factor is whether we wish to distance ourselves from what the speaker said or not.

□ other factors, such as the choice of appropriate reporting verbs and the ordering of elements should receive more focus. This is why the heading of this section is ’Reporting’ and not ’Reported Speech’.

Activity B12.2:

a) apologised, b) admitted, c) accused, d) blamed, e) claimed

Note that in b) and e) the past tense is used in the reported that clause. A past perfect (. . . had caused) would be unlikely, even though the original statement would have been in the past tense: I/you caused . . .)