Let's suppose we have a sentence:
If I see John I will tell him you are looking for him.
Now how should I put it in reported speech in the past? Like this:
Mike said that if he saw (?) John he would tell him I was (?) looking for him.
Is it correct?
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3 Answers
Yes, that's exactly how you should phrase it for past reported speech.
That's correct. But you can write the following way too.
If he saw John, Mike said, he would tell him I was looking for him.
It depends on "emphatic purposes".
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That doesn't work well for me. It looks like you've put in a comma inappropriately to this sentence: If he saw John, Mike said he would tell him O was looking for him Commented Nov 9, 2015 at 7:11
Just brainstorming here. Let's assume the fact that there could have been chances for Mike having seen John, this could be a case of future in the past. How about
Mike said that if he sees John, he would tell him I was looking for him.
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When it comes with the present simple, the tense is not normally changed. (For example: facts, regular actions, etc.) So normally you do the backshift like the OP's example.– SchwaleCommented Dec 9, 2015 at 11:29
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