4
I have this sentence:
"My father has just bought a new printer", he said
There is just word, and I don't know how the just word changes if I convert the original sentence to reported speech. Can I use recently instead? I feel using just is illogical.
Tùng Vương
Posted 2017-04-28T03:38:46.957
Reputation: 53
3
You can (and IMHO should) still use just:
He said his father had just bought a new printer.
There's nothing illogical about this; just is interpreted relative to the "He said", not relative to the present. We can also say, for example:
When we got there, they had just left.
"Where were you working in 1986?"
"Well, in 1986 I would have just graduated from diapers; so I suppose I was unemployed?"
(and so on).
ruakh
Posted 2017-04-28T03:38:46.957
Reputation: 4 098
1There is a certain immediacy about just that doesn't obtain with recently. The word may bother you, as a non-native speaker, but native speakers have no trouble at all with it. – Robusto – 2017-04-28T04:32:13.490
He told me that his father had just bought a new printer. – SovereignSun – 2017-04-28T06:27:56.900
1It is more like telling occurrence or change in an event which was being monitored either with or without expectation. Also, if the news came closer to the event occurring, and recently can't emphasize the freshness, just is used. – tauqr_ahmd – 2017-04-28T06:43:13.873