Reported speech
Let's suppose that Jack told me yesterday : "Anna is nice."
Which is the correct form of reported speech?
Yesterday Jack told me that Anna was nice.
or
Yesterday Jack told me that Anna is nice.
or both?
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Answers · 3
0
Both.
0
Both, because they refer to a permanent quality that Anna has.
Anna was nice at the time that Jack told you this fact. Anna is still nice now, despite the fact that he told you in the past.
We can therefore use both.
Another common example that I can think of is:
"The city that I used to live in was huge" or "The city that I used to live in is huge" - that city still exists and is still huge, so we can use either was or is.
I hope that this helps, Tom
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