English Reported Speech.

I would say it this way; "I have told my boss that I AM going overseas. "

Keep the tense appropriate.

Thank you very much.I couldn't find this rule in my four grammars.

You have NEVER heard of the need for verb tenses to be in agreement?


How would you choose the correct verb here?

I went to the show and (eat, ate) popcorn.

I am painting the room but not (clean, cleaning) the garage today.

I went to the show and ate popcorn.
I am painting the room but not cleaning the garage today.

Hi PUNKEY,
Am I right?

Jane, forget this absolute nonsense, from Punkey. English does not have Sequence of Tenses, "the need for verb tenses to be in agreement".

This is exactly what I warned you about in a recent post regarding the nonsensical prescriptions that have plagued American students for centuries.

Jane asked:

Ragman replied:

Again, this has nothing to do with keeping "the tense appropriate". What does that even mean?

Reported speech, if Punkey and Ragman were to look it up and understand the reasons for it, would quickly dispel any notion that English has Tense Concord/Sequence of Tenses.

The backshifting [moving one tense back] that sometimes occurs with Reported Speech is not done to match tenses because there are no tenses to match.

It is done for one reason and one reason only - to mark speech as reported, ie. not an actual direct quotation [called Direct Speech] of what was said. Again, that is the only reason for it.

By using a Reported Speech format, English native speakers are effectively saying, "This isn't a direct exact quote, I'm only giving you the gist of what was said", so don't hold me responsible for the accuracy.

The reason Ragman's suggestion,

I have told my boss that I AM going overseas.

sounds more natural, Jane, is that there's no need for you as the issuer of that thought, that speech, to have to qualify your remarks. You said it and you can vouch for its accuracy.

You could, of course, choose to backshift as you did in your original,

I have told my boss that I was going overseas.,

but there is another reason that makes this the less natural choice.

When events are still current, as this one seems to be, the more natural choice for all native speakers is to stay with present tense to illustrate the the event is still current.

Art: I'm going to climb up on the table.

Bob: [to Charlie] Charlie, what did Art say?

Charlie: 1) Art said that he is going to climb up on the table. // 2) Art said that he was going to climb up on the table.

Here is the clincher that English has no Tense Concord/Sequence of Tenses rules. At the time of Charlie's report, Art had not climbed up on the table. What Charlie said to Bob had nothing to do with the action of climbing up on the table.

Even if a person chose to use 2), which would be a possibility, though a lesser one, no English native speaker would suggest that,

Art said that he was going to climb up on the table

was a past action that described Art climbing up on the table. The only thing that is past time and therefore past tense is the reporting verb 'said'.

AGAIN, English native speakers use a backshift to mark someone's speech as not a direct/exact quotation. There is NO rule in English grammar that compels English native speakers to always backshift. In fact, as I've mentioned, often, especially in speech, NO backshift will occur.

Punkey asked Jane:

Jane Loh answered:

Jane answered as she did because semantically it made sense to use the verb tenses she used.

======================

How would you choose the appropriate verb form here, Punkey?

I went to the movie theater where they (eat, ate) that new flavor of popcorn all the time.

I was painting the bedroom today but I (am not going to clean, was not cleaning) the garage ever.

Here are two more discussions of Reported Speech, Jane, that you may find helpful.

http://able2know.org/topic/196746-1#top

http://able2know.org/topic/188445-1