Backshifting in reported speech - "I wanted to let you know that he HAS/HAD sent you the letter"

Grammar rules say that when converting a sentence from direct speech to indirect, the reported speech is converted to past tense if the first part of the sentence (reporting verb) is in the past tense.

Direct speech: John said, “I will give you a pen”.
Indirect Speech: John said that he would give me a pen.

S1: I wanted to let you know that he has sent you an email

S2: I wanted to let you know that he had sent you an email

I have seen people write S1 even though it doesn't follow the grammar rule regarding change of tense in the reported speech.

Which of these ones correct and incorrect? Why correct and why wrong?

Joe Black

Posted 2014-11-08T06:31:55.203

Reputation: 171

Answers

If the situation reported is still valid at the time of reporting, backshifting is optional. See Swan (2005) Practical English Usage, pages 275-6, for several examples.

John said that he would give me a pen. Correct in all situations.

John said that he will give me a pen. Possible if John has not yet given the pen to the speaker.

S2: I wanted to let you know that he had sent you an email. Correct in all situations.

S1: I wanted to let you know that he has sent you an email. Possible if the sending was so recent that 'you' may not yet be aware of this.

tunny

Posted 2014-11-08T06:31:55.203

Reputation: 5 727

1+1 You might add that when both are possible your choice is governed by the 'focus' of your discourse: if you are primarily concerned with the situation at the time John said it, you use the past, if you are primarily concerned with the situation now you use the present. – StoneyB on hiatus – 2014-11-08T13:57:35.260

It's much better to think about reported speech as the reporting of information, not words. The information that someone told you must make sense to the person you're talking to now. In the situation in the Original Poster's question, you can present the information in two different ways. It is true that he has sent you a letter. It is also true that at the time that I wanted to tell you something he had already sent you a letter. You can therefore use either of the examples given.

Which choice you make will depend on what you are talking about. If you're talking about things happening at the time when I wanted to tell you something, we would probably used the had sent sentence. If we are talking about the fact that the listener hasn't heard from 'him' for a while, then we're really thinking about the current situation and we are more likely to use the he's sent sentence.

Araucaria - Not here any more.

Posted 2014-11-08T06:31:55.203

Reputation: 25 536