What are the rules for the use of indirect speech?

Question

I know that when the reporting verb is in the past tense, the subsequent verbs woulb be in the past too. But what if I start a sentence with "According to him," would the above rules apply too or do I stick to present tense?

Answer 1

A couple of things

1) Your first point is a bit off.

a) The usual rule for reporting is NOT that a past tense reporting verb is followed by a past tense verb in the statement reported. That's only if the verbs in the statement were in PRESENT tense when spoken. If the original verb in the statement is PAST tense, it will be changed to PAST PERFECT.
e.g., Jim said, "I RODE my bike home"
-> Jim said that he HAD RIDDEN his bike home.

b) There are situations where the tense of the reporting verb will NOT change, Frequently, if the speaker is reporting on something that happened VERY recently, the tense of the reported verb may NOT change, even if it is in the present or future tense.
Mary (just) said, "The weather is nice."
Mary said (that) the weather is nice.

In fact, if the original statement was about something ongoing or still true, the tense MAY (but will not always) stay the same, e.g. "Tom told me [last week? last year?] that chocolate IS his favorite ice cream flavor."


2) "According to Jim" may appear to change the rules -- but it's not quite that simple. It all depends on the perspective. Often when you use this expression you are reporting something said very recently, and so, as with 1a) above, you will keep the tense the same as in direct speech. But it is also possible to use this form for something further back. So, for instance, I could be talking about my visit with Jim LAST week, when he said, "I'm glad to be here." In that case I could say, "According to Jim he was glad to be here."

Perhaps the reason it SEEMS like it does not change, is that "according to" is an expression we are much more prone to use to speak of CURRENT goings on.


Look closely at one of the links already listed -- it has examples for 1a and b.
http://faculty.washington.edu/marynell/grammar/reprtdsp.html

Answer 2

Use present tense.

Direct speech 'Huw totally rocks'

Indirect speech According to him Huw totally rocks.

You use past tense especially with 'said', 'told' and 'asked' because these are past tense verbs but 'according to' means now so use present tense.

Answer 3

http://www.athabascau.ca/courses/engl/155/support/direct_and_indirect_speech.htm

http://gocsm.net/sevas/esl/gramcheck/nounclause1.html

http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/reported-speech


http://faculty.washington.edu/marynell/grammar/reprtdsp.html