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"I was walking down the street this morning when I saw the accident"
If this is changed into indirect speech
"He told Sam he had been walking down…"
does the part “when I saw the accident” change into indirect speech as well or does it stay the same?
There is an omitted word "that" that should be between "Sam" and "he", which indicates the shift from non-speech description to indirect reported speech.
The omission is grammatically acceptable, but can lead to confusion such as this.
