5. Turn the following sentences with the modals into Reported Speech.
“You should do as you are told,” she said.
“How should I have answered?” he said.
“We can meet next week,” she told him.
“I may call you,” she said to them.
“How shall I start the investigation?” he asked them.
“Shall I carry the bag for you?” he said.
“You must be back at ten sharp,” she told him.
“He must be a liar,” she said.
“You needn’t feed the dog. I’ve already done it,” he said.
“You had better phone him,” she said.
“I could run very fast when I was a boy,” he said.
“You may leave early,” he told her.
“One day I’ll be able to afford a car,” she said.
“You ought to send them a letter of apology,” he said.
“Did you have to walk all the way home?” he asked her.
Total: 100/_______
Unit 1 SEQUENCE OF TENSES
By the term sequence of tenses is meant the relationship of tense forms of verbs in a sentence.
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 may be followed by a present tense in a subordinate clause:
John said that Minsk is the capital of Belarus.
T
he
rules of Sequence of Tenses are not characteristic of Russian, and
these differences in the language systemscause
some problems in translation.
Cf.:
He said (that) Mary translated Он сказал, что Мэри переводит
articles without a dictionary. статьи без словаря.
He said (that) Mary was translating Он сказал, что Мэри переводит
the article in her room. статью в своей комнате.
He said (that) Mary would give me Он сказал, что Мэри даст ему
the article when she translated it. статью, когда она ее
переведет.
Он сказал, что пишет ей письма He said (that) he wrote to her daily.
каждый день.
Он сказал, что он сейчас ей пишет He said (that) he was writing a letter
письмо. to her.
Он сказал, что он написал ей He said (that) he had written to
об этом. her about it.
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.
Besides the change of the tense forms there are some other special strategies in indirect speech: changing time and place references, personal pronouns and reporting verbs. The basic rules for forming indirect, or Reported Speech are presented below.
E x e r c i s e s