Time changes in reported speech

Question

Context it's Monday

I will do it today

Now it's Friday

I want to report this setnce

He said he would do it that day

Ok. That's fine but "that day" it's not specific we don't know when excatly something was said. How to inform someone that is happened on Monday

He said he would do it 5 days before

But it would mean that he said " I will do it 5 days ago" doesn't make sense. Then, how to express it using other way than just saying

He said he would do it on Monday. Is there any other way?

One way is to modify the entire sentence with a time indicator first - "On Monday / Five days ago, he said he would do it that day" (with the latter, I'd personally prefer the same day). — Maciej Stachowski, Commented May 20 at 10:03
There are grammatical rules that govern verb tense in reported speech, but there is no grammatical rule specific to reported speech that says how time references must be handled. There you simply have to convey information clearly and with the specificity required by your situation. You could say "He said on Monday that he'd do it {that day, immediately, right away, etc}" If all you need to convey is that it should be done already, you are free to express it as you like; but if the situation demands a very precise formulation, you might have to say something like "by the next business day". — TimR, Commented May 20 at 10:19
You could say "On Monday he said he would have it be done by the end of the day". We would normally add "today" if he was referring to a future day: "On Monday he said he would have it be done by the end of the day today." and that would be the day the speech was being reported. So a native speaker would understand the first one to mean "by the end of the day on Monday, the day he said it" — TimR, Commented May 20 at 11:04

talha2k · Accepted Answer · 2024-05-20 11:51:56Z

1

Simplest way to say it:

"He said he would do it on Monday."

Another variation:

"He said on Monday that he would do it that day."

answered May 20 at 11:51

talha2k

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The second variation is a good reporting of the OP. The first variation is ambiguous; I read it as a future commitment. The promise is made before Monday, and he will get it done when next Monday arrives.
– Peter Kirkpatrick
Commented May 20 at 12:05
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Commented May 21 at 7:43

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