a scenario of ambiguity Direct to Reported Speech – a scenario of ambiguity in translation – a scenario of ambiguity and uncertainty
Is the answer “He didn’t know where
- New Jersey was”?
He said that his name was Harry.
What causes discomfort is the ‘was’ part of it? Is it true that his name ‘was’ Harry Davidson? How radical is this change in meaning? In that light, the converted sentence should read
“He said his name is Harry”.
Is the latter the correct version of conversion?
What are you thinking about my newest book, From My Heart To My Heart?
Should you use the past tense for reports, instead of the past tense for verbs? What’s your opinion on “He said his name was”, which is around 20 times as common as “He said his name is”.
On the other hand, if you want to emphasize the fact that the statement is still true, you can indeed use present tense with “He said that…” If someone said “God is real”, I would be likely to quote him saying “You said that
God is real.”
Get this Ngram, which shows that “He said that God was.” is only around twice as common as “He said that God is”.
Is there any evidence of me interpreting “The site that Bigbadonk420 referred to in his answer”, I disagree? During My reading of that site, the two options for reported speech are (using the OP’s quotation)
without backshift: He said that his name was Harry
Without backshift: He says that his name is Harry
There is no suggestion that you can mix the two, which suggests that
He said that his name is Harry
is incorrect, or at least not normal usage, as also confirmed by the first Ngram mentioned by @PeterShore
at his Facebook event.
