0

This is about indirect reported speech:

  1. Before she became queen, she had always said that she does not want to marry.
    Looks logical to me (since the time has already been introduced with past perfect), but is not correct.

  2. Before she became queen, she had always said that she did not want to marry.
    Sounds good to me, but why? It surely is correct but shouldn't the 'did not want' be in the past perfect tense?

  3. Before she became queen, she had always said that she had not wanted to marry.
    Sounds a bit odd to me, but why? Logically, in terms of the 'timeframe', it seems correct.

Other example (from a worksheet)

Before John had lunch, he had run 10 km and had done the laundry.

Is it correct that in this example past perfect is twice in the 2nd part of the sentence because it is to different events? Whereas in the sentence

Before she became queen, she had always said that she did not want to marry.

the part she did not want to marry* is what she said, hence not a separate event?

JoHKa
  • 498
  • 4
  • 13
  • 2
    (2) sounds the most natural to me. Are you sure that Swan says that (1) is correct? (3) makes sense if you change it to Before she became queen, she said, she had not wanted to marry - implying that she changed her mind when she did become queen. – Kate Bunting Mar 07 '23 at 12:49
  • According to Practical English Usage, Michael Swan (2017), this is correct. I'd like to see some evidence of that. I'm sure you've misunderstood something, because example #1 above is not a well-formed utterance. – FumbleFingers Mar 07 '23 at 13:20
  • Example #3 is the reported speech version of her having actually said "I have not wanted to marry" - which is incredibly unlikely. – FumbleFingers Mar 07 '23 at 13:24
  • @FumbleFingers - apologies, you are right. I confused something. I have corrected my post. – JoHKa Mar 07 '23 at 15:09
  • I don't see the point of this obsession with Perfect verb forms. *All* your examples pointlessly start with what she *had* always said. Simpler and better - Before she became queen, she always said* that she didn't want to marry. It's almost always better to avoid Perfect verb forms if you don't need* them. – FumbleFingers Mar 07 '23 at 15:48
  • 1
    Canonical Post #2: What is the perfect, and how should I use it? TL;DR: As little as possible! :) – FumbleFingers Mar 07 '23 at 17:19
  • 1
    No "rule of grammar" prevents you from asking about Before she had become* queen, she had always said...* But it's pointless – FumbleFingers Mar 07 '23 at 17:22

0 Answers0