said | told * that + CLAUSE (tense shift) – English Grammar Profiler
Point 8 in REPORTED SPEECH is defined as:
report statements using a reporting clause with ‘say’ or ‘tell’ + ‘that-‘clause, with a pronoun and tense shift where relevant
*At A2 students can already use ‘said’ or ‘tell’ with a pronoun shift. Therefore, we might surmise that at B1 it must include a tense shift. There are many points clashing and overlapping for reported speech. For example A2 REPORTING VERBS + DIRECT OBJECT ‘THAT’-CLAUSE a limited range of verbs and even B2 past perfect if reporting past simple.
This makes it very difficult to untangle.
A search in iWeb for:
said that * had _VVN
1 SAID THAT HE HAD SEEN 198
2 SAID THAT HE HAD HEARD 130
3 SAID THAT HE HAD RECEIVED 96
4 SAID THAT THEY HAD SEEN 86 5 SAID THAT SHE HAD SEEN 81 6 SAID THAT HE HAD COME 78 7 SAID THAT HE HAD MADE 76 8 SAID THAT HE HAD SPOKEN 65 9 SAID THAT HE HAD FOUND 54 10 SAID THAT HE HAD GONE 52 11 SAID THAT HE HAD TAKEN 50 12 SAID THAT HE HAD TRIED 48 13 SAID THAT HE HAD MET 43
14 SAID THAT THEY HAD RECEIVED 43
15 SAID THAT HE HAD ASKED 42
16 SAID THAT THEY HAD EXPERIENCED 42
17 SAID THAT THEY HAD HEARD 42 18 SAID THAT IT HAD RECEIVED 41 19 SAID THAT SHE HAD HEARD 40 20 SAID THAT SHE HAD RECEIVED 40 21 SAID THAT HE HAD GIVEN 36 22 SAID THAT THEY HAD USED 35 23 SAID THAT HE HAD TOLD 32 24 SAID THAT THEY HAD TAKEN 31 25 SAID THAT HE HAD KNOWN 30
26 SAID THAT HE HAD DECIDED 29
27 SAID THAT HE HAD LOST 29
28 SAID THAT HE HAD KILLED 28 29 SAID THAT HE HAD LEARNED 28 30 SAID THAT THEY HAD MADE 28 31 SAID THAT THEY HAD COME 27
32 SAID THAT HE HAD SPENT 26
33 SAID THAT THEY HAD TRIED 26 34 SAID THAT HE HAD WRITTEN 25 35 SAID THAT SHE HAD MADE 25 36 SAID THAT THEY HAD FOUND 25 37 SAID THAT SHE HAD FOUND 24 38 SAID THAT HE HAD READ 24 39 SAID THAT HE HAD LEFT 23
40 SAID THAT THEY HAD LOST 23
41 SAID THAT HE HAD WORKED 22 42 SAID THAT IT HAD FOUND 21 43 SAID THAT HE HAD TALKED 21 44 SAID THAT HE HAD USED 21 45 SAID THAT SHE HAD SPOKEN 20 46 SAID THAT HE HAD CHANGED 19 47 SAID THAT HE HAD GOTTEN 19 48 SAID THAT HE HAD WANTED 19 49 SAID THAT IT HAD TAKEN 18
50 SAID THAT HE HAD THOUGHT 18
told * that * could|would
*We chose these modals because they are often taught with tense shifting.
1 TOLD ME THAT I WOULD 1142 2 TOLD ME THAT I COULD 977 3 TOLD ME THAT HE WOULD 654 4 TOLD YOU THAT YOU COULD 623 5 TOLD ME THAT IT WOULD 590 6 TOLD HIM THAT HE WOULD 589 7 TOLD HIM THAT I WOULD 507 8 TOLD ME THAT THEY WOULD 494 9 TOLD HIM THAT HE COULD 349
10 TOLD HER THAT I WOULD 341
A2 vocabulary:
could, decided, killed, lost, received, spent, tried
B1:
experienced