1.Make up dialogues in pairs about the problems you have now. Try to use the verbs in the Active and Passive Voice. Sequence of tenses

The sequence of tenses is a dependence of the tense form of the predicate in a subordinate clause on the tense form of the predicate in its principal clause.

The verb of a subordinate clause is made to agree with a principal verb according to the following rules:

1. Principal verbs in the present or the future tenses take subordinate verbs in any tense:

He says he has to go/ will go/ had to go.

He will understand that he has been in the wrong/was in the wrong.

2. Principal verbs in the past-time tenses should be followed by subordinate verbs that denote past time (Past Indefinite, Past Perfect, Past Continuous or Future-in-the-Past):

He said he had to go/ would go.

He said that he had won.

He had tried hard in order that he might win.

3. If the subordinate clause expresses a general truth – a fact that is true for all time – a past tense in a principal clause is followed by a present tense in a subordinate clause:

John said that Minsk is the capital of Belarus.

SEQUENCE OF TENSES
He lives in New York. I thought that he lived in New York.	Simultaneous action (одновременное)	Я думал, что он живет в Нью Йорке.
She is sleeping. I knew that she was sleeping.	Simultaneous action (одновременное)	Я знал, что она спит.
He has returned from London. He said he had returned from London.	Prior action (предшествующее)	Он сказал, что он вернулся из Лондона.
He bought a new car. I heard he had bought a new car.	Prior action (предшествующее)	Я слышал, что он купил новую машину.
He will send us a letter. He said he would send us a letter.	Posterior action (последующее)	Он сказал, что отправит нам письмо.

The rules of Sequence of Tenses are especially active in Reported Speech when speakers need to introduce grammatical changes to show the differences between their current situation and the situation they are reporting.

Exercises

1.Write the following sentences in the past. Mind the rules of the sequence of tenses.

(A)

1. My uncle says he has just come back from the Caucasus. 2. He says he has spent a fortnight in the Caucasus. 3. He says it did him a lot of good. 4. He says he feels better now. 5. He says his wife and he spent most of their time on the beach. 6. He says they did a lot of sightseeing. 7. He says he has a good camera. 8. He says he took many photographs while travelling in the Caucasus. 9. He says he will come to see us next Sunday. 10. He says he will bring and show us the photographs he took during his stay in the Caucasus.

(B)

1. Nick says he is going to the hotel to see his friends, who have just arrived in St. Petersburg from the United States of America. 2. He says they have not been here for a long time. 3. He says they were friends at school. 4. He says he will take them to the theatre on Sunday. 5. They say they will write me a letter when they return home. 6. Mike says he is sure Ann and Kate will be excellent guides. 7. He says they have made good progress in English. 8. Oleg says that in a day or two sever­al English students will come to pay a visit to their school and he will probably have to act as inter­preter. 9. Ann says she has just met George in the street. 10. She says George told her a lot of interest­ing things about his tour in the south.