A column on writing from Editor & Publisher September 19, 1981.
Shifty Tenses
Converting direct into indirect speech is done according to grammatical rules, not logical ones. Consider:
State Senator Helen Gawn says to you over the phone in reply to your question, "I am opposed to this appointment. The man is not qualified. As sure as cats have kittens, I will not vote for him."
You have three ways to report her saying her own words.
Suppose you choose # 3, indirect speech. You decide to quote her closely. What do you do with all the verbs? State Senator Helen Gawn, D, Uncountable County, said Thursday that she is? or was? opposed to the appointment of Yip N. Yapp as state dog catcher. She said that he is? not or was? not qualified, and that as sure as cats have? or had? kittens, she will? or would? not vote for him.
"In English, there is a general rule of sequence when a past tense form (said in the above example) precedes," wrote grammarian George O. Curme. "When the governing proposition (Gawn said) has a past tense form, a past tense form usually follows whether it is suitable to the occasion or not."
That is, grammatical time has nothing to do with real time. What controls is the "governing proposition." In journalism, the governing proposition is usually "X said (that)" followed by a clause. The tenses shift like this:
| She says, | |
|---|---|
| "Joe plays often." She said (that) he played often. | |
| "He is playing soon." | She said he was playing soon. |
| "He will play soon." | She said he would play soon. |
| "He will be playing soon" | She said he would be playing soon. |
| "He will have played twice." | She said he would have played twice. |
| "He played often." | She said he had played often. |
| "He has played often." | She said he had played often. |
By these rules, direct speech is converted smoothly into indirect speech. Converting the exact words of the senator into reported speech means starting with some variation of she said (that). The following verbs in her speech are then governed by she said, so that all of her verbatim present tenses in #3 above must be converted to past tenses:
"State Senator Helen Gawn... said Thursday that she was opposed to the appointment of .... She said that he was not qualified and that as sure as cats had kittens, she would not vote for him."
Perhaps you bridled at as sure as cats had kittens. You insist that because the statement is eternally true, it should read as sure as cats have kittens. Enough top grammarians walk on your side of this street to make have kittens OK.
But some authorities insist on "past (tense) follows past (tense)" in every case, even when something is customary, habitual or characteristic, or is universally true:
Past follows past is the easiest rule to remember. Yet to my New England ears, these verbs sound right unshifted:
But when not everyone agrees, only one rule governs reporters: the law in their own newsrooms.
See #18: Other shifts in indirect speech
There are three columns on quoting people: #17, #18, #19.
Ethel Grodzins Romm is a writer and editor currently living in New York City. She is the author of The Open Conspiracy: What America's Angry Generation is Saying (review) (auction with cover), several of the Strategies in Reading workbook series and others. She appeared in the film Paranormal: Science or Pseudoscience? She has written columns on language for Editor & Publisher, The American Bar Association Journal and many others. She is currently working on a book on management.
Rhetoric.com home page :: Writing Guide columns :: Romm.org home page