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I will do it in 5 days / in 2 weeks

How do we report these time expressions in indirect speech?

He said he would it - what now?

My grammar books says that I should say 5 days later or 2 weeks later if I want to report the time expression the same way as today to that day. What do you think?

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    You need to give more context. Did he in fact do it? Is it even possible for him to still do it? Maybe he said he would teach your toddler to use a knife and fork in 2 weeks - but that was 20 years ago. Sometimes it's He said he will do it in 2 weeks, other times it's ...said he would do it or ...said he would have done it. CONTEXT IS EVERYTHING!
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented May 17 at 17:33
  • Note that She said that he must have done it is a completely different construction with a completely different meaning, that's almost certainly not relevant here.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented May 17 at 17:36
  • 1 It's not true anymorw. Is it in 2 weeks later?
    – Adam
    Commented May 17 at 17:38
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    "He said [that] he will do it in five days/two weeks" [from now]. "He said [that] he would do it in five days/two weeks" [from the time he said it].
    – Kate Bunting
    Commented May 17 at 18:04
  • @KateBunting: The only mention of now in the actual question is "What now?" (OP asking "What comes next?"). We still don't have enough context to know whether the original speaker was talking about something he would do within the next 5 days / 2 weeks of time of speaking, OR that the job would take him that long to complete (but because he's fully booked, he can't even start the job until next year! :)
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented May 17 at 19:00

2 Answers 2

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I assume that "I will do it in 5 days/2 weeks" is a direct quote. To report this we describe what was said:

He said that he (will/would) do it in 5 days/2 weeks.

You would choose will or would depending on whether the end of the five days (or two weeks) is in the future or the past. Similarly if someone says, "he must have done it"

You would report that someone said that he must have done it.

That conversion is particularly easy.

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  • We should use 'would' instead of 'will' in indirect speech. the OP is just a learner and should be provided with the correct usage of grammar (not saying what you gave is incorrect, it's just a language so having variations is common, but grammatically 'would' should be used here) so that wherever they use it, they feel confident.
    – hwkal
    Commented May 17 at 18:32
  • Will or would depending on tense. The reporting of something doesn't break the general use of tense.
    – James K
    Commented May 17 at 19:02
  • English Grammar in Use, pg. no. 94. In general, the present in direct speech changes to the past in reported speech: * *am/is →was, do/does →did, will →would, are →were, have/has →had, can →could
    – hwkal
    Commented May 17 at 20:44
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    Feel free to write your own answer.
    – James K
    Commented May 17 at 21:49
  • I agree, "He said he will do it in 5 days" is the simplest conversion. Good. We are not mind readers to know how deep his promise was. We should not re-interpret the prediction into "He promised he will have it finished in 5, but you know his fast talk." No, that edit is not conversion to indirect speech. No matter when he said it or whether he came through, what he said is all he said.
    – Yosef Baskin
    Commented May 17 at 22:07
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He said back on the first of the month that he would do it in five days.

You shouldn't report speech in a manner that makes the report of little use. You add detail as necessary.

The addition of "back on the first of the month" lets your listener know, with a fair degree of certainty, that you don't mean five days from the present but five days from the first of the month.

So you add whatever facts need to be added to make the information useful and less ambiguous.

You could append.

... and so he's a week overdue.

or

... and he did it in only three.

Whatever.

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