Teacher Discussion Forums

It was an exercise where students were supposed to change sentences to reported speech and one of my students went like this:

"Use the force" => "He emphasised he use the force"

I'm aware of constructions like He insisted that she come earlier tomorrow (although I'm always tempted to use a modal verb), but is it possible to have it without that?

Thank you

José

First of all, that "the" probably needs to go. Unless Star Wars is involved.

Secondly, there probably have to be two different males. And some kind of futurity relative to the moment of speaking rather than what is considered normal reported speech.

So I suppose that:

"John just told David to find out from the prisoner where the money was. He (J) emphasised (that) he (D) use force."

works well enough.

Most Brits would put in a "should", but not necessarily AmE speakers, although I may be wrong about this.

It doesn't work as a substitute for:

"He emphasised (that)he used force"

( "I use force" he stated categorically)

or for:

"He emphasised (that) he had used force"

("I ('ve) used force" he said emphatically")

leaving aside who the "he"s are.