Question
4 Dec 2020
- Traditional Chinese (Taiwan)
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English (US)
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Japanese
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English (UK)
Question about English (US)
I read about reported speech in English in a textbook, and I wonder why some verb tenses behind the word “said” are not consistent.
I read about reported speech in English in a textbook, and I wonder why some verb tenses behind the word “said” are not consistent.
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4 Dec 2020
Featured answer
- English (US)
The reason they're different tenses is because each example has a different amount of certainty.
1. "Biden said he would" This refers to an event in the future and the author is not sure if it will really happen or not.
2. "Biden said he will" This refers to an event in the future the author thinks will happen
3. "Fauci said it was safe" This shows no uncertainty. Now, we don't know if Fauci will say it's safe, but if he does say it's safe, then there will be no doubts about what he said.
Highly-rated answerer
Read more comments
- English (US)
The reason they're different tenses is because each example has a different amount of certainty.
1. "Biden said he would" This refers to an event in the future and the author is not sure if it will really happen or not.
2. "Biden said he will" This refers to an event in the future the author thinks will happen
3. "Fauci said it was safe" This shows no uncertainty. Now, we don't know if Fauci will say it's safe, but if he does say it's safe, then there will be no doubts about what he said.
Highly-rated answerer
- Traditional Chinese (Taiwan)
@mrggy Wow, I didn’t know that before! There seems to be a gap between real English and textbook English.
- English (US)
@Christine0724 This is pretty advanced level English! I had to think really hard about what the difference is haha. This is the kind of difference that native speakers don't often notice.
Highly-rated answerer
- Traditional Chinese (Taiwan)
@mrggy Got it! Looks like there’s a long way to go lol
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