F2F Class Notes (Ben)

Grammar

He said “I will go there tomorrow.”
He said that he would go there tomorrow.

He is saying “I will go there tomorrow”
He is saying that he will go there tomorrow.

He was saying “I will go there tomorrow”
He was saying that he would go there tomorrow.

Direct and indirect speech

We change the tenses in the following way:

• Present – past
  “I never understand you,” she told me. – She told me she never understood me.
  “We are doing exercises,” he explained. – He explained that they were doing exercises.
• Present perfect – past perfect
  “I have broken the window,” he admitted. – He admitted that he had broken the window.
  “I have been waiting since the morning,” he complained. – He complained that he had been waiting since the morning.
• Past – past perfect
  “She went to Rome,” I thought. – I thought that she had gone to Rome.
  “He was thinking of buying a new car,” she said. – She said he had been thinking of buying a new car.
• Will – conditional
  Will changes into the conditional.
  I will come on Sunday,” he reminded me. – He reminded me that he would come on Sunday.

As you can see, both the past tense and the present perfect change into the past perfect.

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Conditional 1 : REAL situations (present + will/going to)
You are going to be late if you don’t hurry up.

Conditional 2 : UNREAL situations / dreams (past + would/could/should/might)
If I had more money, I would buy a house
You could try to be a bit nicer to him.
I could help you if I had more time.

Conditional 3 : PAST situations – regrets, blame (past perfect + would have)
You could have told me earlier !
I would have told you if I had had the time !
I would have told you, but then you would have gotten angry.

Practice :

http://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/conditional-exercises.html