| The American Heritage® Book of English Usage. |
A Practical and Authoritative Guide to Contemporary English. 1996.
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Page 45
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| past in relation to Act V). Once writing in the past tense, you can then be tempted to continue it even when you write about Act V. For this reason it’s best to write about literature in the present tense—whether you are in Act V or Act II: Before he confronts Ophelia, Hamlet unburdens his soul in a soliloquy. You may of course describe biographical details—how a writer lived or what a writer did—in the past tense, but you should keep this distinct from what a writer says or attempts to do in literature, which is eternally present. Thus you can say Shakespeare portrays Hamlet as a very passionate man and Shakespeare presented many of his plays at the Globe Theater in London. | 1 |
When reporting indirect speech, you must convert direct speech in present tense to reported speech in past tense:
| | Direct Speech: “I am working for a law firm,” she said.
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| | Indirect Speech: She said that she was working for a law firm.
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| 2 |
If the direct speech is in the past tense, the indirect speech must also be in the past or the past perfect:
| | Direct Speech: “The play opened last week,” he said.
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| | Indirect Speech: He said that the play opened (or had opened) the week before.
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| The second example raises the issue of whether the past perfect tense is falling out of use in such situations. The Usage Panel prefers the past perfect, but the simple past is often acceptable. Seventy-seven percent prefer had talked to talked in the sentence I asked if he had talked to his doctor. This leaves, of course, 23 percent for whom talked is unobjectionable. The panel is even more tolerant of the simple past in this example, which does not involve the reporting of discourse. In a sentence such as Before I was introduced to her, I heard/had heard the rumor about her, 59 percent would require had heard, while 41 percent would allow heard. Thus it seems likely that many readers will not notice the omission of had—that is, the use of the simple past in preference to the past perfect—in these situations. | 4 |
But if the direct speech is in the perfect or past perfect tense, then the indirect speech must be in the past perfect:
| | Direct Speech: “I have been working as a plumber for six years,” he said.
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| | Indirect Speech: He said that he had been working as a plumber for six years.
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| More at
subjunctive. | 6 |
verbs, transitive and intransitive
| | Most grammars classify verbs into transitive and intransitive. Transitive verbs take an object: I read the book. She values your criticism. Priestley discovered oxygen. Intransitive verbs do not take an object: I sleep on a futon. She sings beautifully. The Kingsleys live in a brick house. Many verbs, of course, sometimes take an object and sometimes do not. In other words, they can be transitive or intransitive depending on how they are | 7 |
| The American Heritage® Book of English Usage. Copyright © 1996 by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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