Tense Confusion

[crazyaboutenglish]

Hi,

I wrote a sentence today and my friend told me it not is correct:-

"They told me how I can found a good place to live."

She said "found" should be "find" but I don't understand why. I'm talking in the past tense "told". But then "can" is the present. I'm confused.

Can anyone help me?

Thanks

[Grumpy]

Better to say :"They told me how I could find a good place to live."

[SoothingDave]

The "telling" is in the past, but the "finding" is not.

[a_vee]

This looks like an indirect quotation, so what "they" said is "you can find a good place to live by... etc.". It's sort of repeating what they said, and they spoke in the present originally. That's why can is in the present, I think. It is just because of the way "they" originally said it.

Auxiliary "Can" will remove the conjugation from a verb that it is cooperating with, and leave you with a basic verb.

Here are some examples:

She runs on Mondays.
She does not run on Saturdays.
They said ,"She does not run on Saturdays." < exact, direct quotation
They said she doesn't run on Saturdays. < approximate, indirect quotation

[Barb_D]

After a modal (can, could, would, should)l, use the main form of the verb - the "to X" version but without the "to."
With the verb "to find" it's just find, and won't change with person either.

He can find
She could find
You would find
etc.

[crazyaboutenglish]

Thanks everyone!