Hello everybody) Could you help me please with one question? For example, this sentence: He says, "She starts university in September". We use Present Simple to talk about fixed plans in the future.
Which is correct: "he said that she started university in September" or "he said that she would start university in September".
And with Future Continuous: They say, "we are not playing football on Sunday"
"they said that they were not playing football on Sunday" or
"they said that they would not be playing football on Sunday"
Can we use Past Simple/Past Continuous in clause sentence or in any case we should use Future in the past?
I appreciate your help)
Replies
Dear Nikolay, these are great questions!
Both sentences are correct but the meaning is different as far as I know. When someone says" He said she started university in September" it means she started the university and probably, now she has finished it. When someone says" he said she would start university" it means she is going to start her university and probably, now, she hasn't started it yet. Another thing you should pay attention is that these two sentences are quotations, which means someone said something on behalf of another person who is not present at this moment. For example, I say Nikolay asked when we should use simple past tense in a sentence. At this time, I'm writing a response, you aren't present so I quote what you said to someone else. The two sentences above are exactly like this. And, usually in those quotation sentences, if the time is present you should make it past tense. What I mean is that you always make it one tense back in the time because you are quoting. When we quote, the time is always about the past. so here the main sentence was something like this:
She will start university in September.
Now, when you want to quote it, present tense "will start", would be "would start" because "would " is the past form of "will." You can use this rule for the other sentences you mentioned here.
They say, we are not playing football on Sunday...make it to the past, then "are not playing" which is in present time would be "were not playing"
I hope this helps. Feel free to ask if it's not clear yet. Good luck,
Thanks for your detailed answer) However, it's not clear for me yet..
You say: "she said she started university in September" it means she started university and probably, now she has finished it".
Why does it mean that?
In the Passive Voice it is used one tense back, so If we want to say that she started the university in Passive, it would be written like: "she said she had started.."
So then it will mean that she really started.. But in the sentence "she said she started university in September" Past Simple is used in clause sentence, so Present Simple is used in Active Voice..
So, I want to know whether Past Simple in the meaning of Future can be used in Passive..
You are more than welcome.
These are not passive sentences dear Nikolay. Passive sentence means the sentence doesn't have a subject. Here we have a subject ,"She." So, the sentence is not passive at all. As I told you it's like someone makes a remark about her friend.
If you want to make the sentence into PASSIVE, it would be a totally different story..
The sentence would be something like this:
She said the university had been started in September.
The original sentence is "she said she started university in September", for passive we don't want subject and subject here is "she" so , omit that. Then, for passive, we need an object and object here is university. So, bring university at the beginning of the sentence. Then, because the sentence is PAST Tense, then, it goes one tense back.
We never use past tense with future tense. NEVER Ever! Always Present tense can be replaced by the Future tense.
What I meant with the first sentence "she said she started the university in September." Imagine, you have taken an English class in the summer and now, you are talking to me and you are telling me that you started your English class in June for example. When you say this to me it means that you finished your English class and then, if I want to tell what you said to my friend I would say: " Nikolay said he started his English class in June." It means you finished it now and now, you don't have any English classes.
Now I understand this all better, thanks. However I confused two grammar structures..
I wanted to say "Reported Speech" instead of "Passive Voice"..)
When you say that we never use Past Tense with Future Tense, do you mean that Past Tense can't be associated with Future if the sequence of tenses is used? So we use Future in the Past..
And my previous answer should have sounded like: Can Past Simple in the meaning of Future be used in Reported Speech? No as I can see, right?
Thanks)
Great! You got it right when you said Reported Speech. You are totally right we can't use past tense with future tense which it means past tense can't be associated with future. Future is always associated with present tense. Let me explain it with an example: In this sentence, "I hope you will be OK" what is the tense of the first sentence "I hope"? The first sentence is in present form. What is the tense of the second sentence "you will be OK" ? it's future. As you see, future goes with present. This is what I mean. So, I can't use past tense for the first sentence if the second one is in future form. For example, this sentence is totally wrong: "I hoped you will be OK." This is wrong. Why? because the first sentence "I hoped" is in the past form but the second is in the future form so past sentence can't go with future form. It's like two things that can never get along. Imagine them like water and oil. You can't mix water into oil or vice versa. It doesn't go together.
The right form of this sentence would be something like this: I hoped you would be OK. Why is this right? because Hoped is in past form and would is in the past form. Would is the past form of will, so, we can use it. Now, the sentence is right.
For your second question, I think if you use Future in the past, it means future but the future is in the past as the name refers to. For example, in the above sentence, it means about future but since I', quoting this sentence it means I'm talking about the past tense. If it's complicated, think of this sentence I told you" I hoped you would be OK"..it means in few days back, I was thinking of you and I hoped you would be OK wherever you are. Is it clear? if not, ask again. I will explain again.
Sorry for me being so incomprehensive, but...
when you say, "You got it right when you said Reported Speech.", does it mean that:
"she said she started university in September" can have the same meaning as "she said she would start university in September" ?
That's what I wanted to know from the beginning, but couldn't tell in more easy words...)
The original form of the second one was She will start university in September. But, it will change into "would" just because it is Reported Speech.
Thanks for your help, now it`s clear to me.
GREAT! More success for your study! You are very persistent and a great student!
No, they don't mean the same. The second one hasn't happened yet. It will happen in the future. Don't get confused by the past form of the verb, would. It still refers to future but because it is Reported Speech, we just turn it into past tense of will.
No problem at all. You can ask as many questions as you want and I will help you if I can and know the answer.