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hela
Joined: 02 May 2004
Posts: 420
Location: Tunisia
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 Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2008 11:58 am Post subject: reported speech & tenses |
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Hello teachers,
Which tenses are possible in English in this particular context, please? After a reporting verb in the past is possible to use the past as well as the present in English when we refer to an action that has not yet happened at the moment of speaking?
�He called me this morning to tell me he was going / is going (both possible ?) to work in Irelandas soon as / after he finished / had finished (both possible?) / he finishes / has finished his exams.�
Thanks
Hela |
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Lorikeet
Joined: 08 Oct 2005
Posts: 1877
Location: San Francisco
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| Posted: Tue Jun 17, 2008 7:51 am Post subject: Re: reported speech & tenses |
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| hela wrote: |
Hello teachers,
Which tenses are possible in English in this particular context, please? After a reporting verb in the past is possible to use the past as well as the present in English when we refer to an action that has not yet happened at the moment of speaking?
�He called me this morning to tell me he was going / is going (both possible ?) to work in Irelandas soon as / after he finished / had finished (both possible?) / he finishes / has finished his exams.�
Thanks
Hela |
I can accept all of these (and maybe more!) depending on what the speaker wants to say.
He called me this morning to tell me he is going to work in Ireland after he finishes his exams.
He called me this morning to tell me he is going to work in Ireland after he has finished his exams.
He called me this morning to tell me he was going to work in Ireland after he finished his exams.
He called me this morning to tell me he was going to work in Ireland after he had finished his exams. |
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hela
Joined: 02 May 2004
Posts: 420
Location: Tunisia
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| Posted: Tue Jun 17, 2008 10:13 am Post subject: |
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Hello lorikeet,
What's the difference between :
"after he finished" and "after he had finished"
and
"after he finishes" and "after he has finished" ?
See you |
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Lorikeet
Joined: 08 Oct 2005
Posts: 1877
Location: San Francisco
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| Posted: Tue Jun 17, 2008 9:24 pm Post subject: |
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| hela wrote: |
Hello lorikeet,
What's the difference between :
"after he finished" and "after he had finished"
and
"after he finishes" and "after he has finished" ?
See you |
You ask very good questions, but I am not sure I can give good answers. Perhaps someone else will be able to help you as well. I have been reading a lot about verbs recently, and I think the difference in the sentences has more to do with the speaker's idea. The effect of the two sentences is really the same.
He called me this morning to tell me he is going to work in Ireland after he finishes his exams.
He called me this morning to tell me he is going to work in Ireland after he has finished his exams.
For the above two sentences, the meaning seems to be really the same, but the second sentence (...he has finished his exams..) makes me get a stronger picture in my mind that the exams have finished.
He called me this morning to tell me he was going to work in Ireland after he finished his exams.
He called me this morning to tell me he was going to work in Ireland after he had finished his exams.
For the above two sentences, in American English, at least, the simple past form (...finished...) is often used instead of the past perfect form (...had finished...) I think using the "...had finished..." emphasizes that the action of finishing the exams is over before the "going to work in Ireland" occurs. We would probably say it as, "he'd finished" and the sound would be close to "he finished" anyway.
I apologize for being unable to explain in a clearer way the differences between the two sets of sentences; the short answer is that the meanings are very similar to me. |
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