Needn't

Needn't (absence of necessity) can remain unchanged or can be replaced by didn't have to in indirect speech: 'You needn't/don't have to come in tomorrow ' the boss said The boss said I needn't/didn't have to come in the next day

7 Conditional statements [> 14.2] Type 1 conditional statements are reported as follows: ' I f you pass your test, I'll buy you a car' he said He said that if I passed my test he would buy me a car Type 2 conditional statements are reported as follows: 'If you passed your test I would buy you a car' he said He said that if I passed my test he would buy me a car Type 3 conditional statements are reported as follows: 'If you'd passed your test I'd have bought you a car' he said He said that if I'd passed my test he'd have bought me a car

8 Exclamations Note the word order in reported exclamations: 'What a silly boy you are' she exclaimed She told him what a silly boy he was She told him that he was a silly boy

Indirect statements with mixed tense sequences

Indirect statements with mixed tense sequences

Form of indirect statements with mixed tense sequences

Actual spoken statement

I've read Tony's book and I don't understand it'

Indirect statements with mixed tense sequences

Jim says he's read Tony's book and didn't understand it Jim said he's read Tony's book and doesn t understand it Jim said he'd read Tony's book and doesn't understand it Jim said he d read Tony's book and didn't understand it

15.15 Indirect speech: the speaker's viewpoint [compare > 15.10-11]

A speaker can choose to report a statement or a question using the tenses that match his viewpoint, based on the facts of the situation as he sees them at the time of speaking. Note the different viewpoints expressed in the following examples:

Jim says (now) he's read Tony s book and didn't understand it

(then, when he finished reading, or then, while he was reading).

Jim said (then) he's read Tony's book (now) and didn't understand

it (then).

Jim said (then) he'd read Tony's book (then) and doesn't

understand it (now).

Jim said (then) he'd read Tony's book (then) and didn't understand

it (then).