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oh I didn't recognise you before you faced me.

If I wanted to change it in indirect speech which would be acceptable?

"Yesterday I saw Claire and she told me she hadn't recognised/ didn't recognise me before I had faced/faced her"

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  • Either is fine. Is there a reason you believe one is more "acceptable" than the other?
    – Andrew
    Commented Sep 21, 2017 at 18:33
  • No actually I was just wondering because I've read that usually in the indirect speech what is written in past simple becomes past perfect. For example do you think that in this example is ok to use "did" or should I use "had done" :"He told me he was really sorry for what he did/had done to her"
    – Eliana Grosso
    Commented Sep 21, 2017 at 18:49
  • @Andrew Do u think that the past perfect should proceed the simple past here?
    – user61367
    Commented Sep 21, 2017 at 19:24
  • @RolaAbu-Ghazaleh by "precede" do you mean that it's "better" than the simple past? No, I don't, but please see my full answer for why.
    – Andrew
    Commented Sep 21, 2017 at 19:28
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    Your sentence is a bit odd. "before you faced me" isn't very natural. Perhaps try "before you turned around"
    – Billy Kerr
    Commented Aug 28, 2023 at 10:37

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I'm not sure why you would have been taught that indirect speech always converts to the past perfect. That's simply not true. Example:

Susan told me, "Mary was sick".
Susan told me Mary was sick.

It's fine to use the past perfect ("she told me Mary had been sick"), but not necessary. Similarly:

He told me, "I'm sorry I broke her toy."
He told me he was sorry he broke her toy.
He told me he was sorry he had broken her toy.

It's possible that using the perfect tenses is more elegant English, because they can be difficult to use correctly, but (as with any language) this only works if you also use other, more formal words and inflections. Otherwise it can sound like you're trying too hard to be elegant.

Also it assumes your audience can appreciate the distinction. In Britain they might prefer the past perfect, but here in the United States we like people to speak plainly (or even poorly, in some cases).

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  • Now everything makes more sense. As for its usage with the conditional I wanted to provide an example to you. " If I went to Los Angeles I would probably not come back anymore" , in indirect speech "when I was little Mark told me that if he went to Los Angeles he wouldn't probably not come back anymore but then he went there last year and even came back" . Is it correct?
    – Eliana Grosso
    Commented Sep 21, 2017 at 19:41
  • @ElianaGrosso It's correct except for the order of some of the words. "When I was little, Mark told me that if he went to Los Angeles he probably wouldn't come back ever again, but then he went there last year, and he came back. (So I guess he either didn't mean it, or Los Angeles isn't as great as he thought.)"
    – Andrew
    Commented Sep 21, 2017 at 20:15
  • Thanks for your answers, you are really helpful! Is there a difference when using " he asked me if/when/what/why" . I'm going to do some examples. "1) A=Has he arrived home yet? B=what did you say? A=I asked if he has arrived home yet".2) "Why did you choose this university? " "Yesterday Paul asked me why I chose/had chosen this university".3) "I bought this pen a few days ago and when I did it my mother asked me why I chose/had chosen that one over the others".
    – Eliana Grosso
    Commented Sep 22, 2017 at 9:52
  • @ElianaGrosso Why don't you ask that as a separate question? That way others can get the chance to answer, and also other English learners can benefit from the answer. :)
    – Andrew
    Commented Sep 22, 2017 at 16:24

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