I told you I didn't read it/ I told you I hadn't had read it.

[LE AVOCADO]

Dear everybody
I have a context as below:

A:Who read my diary?
B:I didn't read it
A:It is only you who read it.
B:I told you I didn't read it/ I told you I hadn't had read it.

Which one is correct ?
Do we need to shift back tense to past perfect in this situation?

Grammar books write that the standard way is to back shift, but sometimes we don't need to back shift
But I don't know if we need to back shift for this situation, if not, why?

 

[emsr2d2]

[STRIKE]Dear[/STRIKE] Hello, everybody.

I have a question about the [STRIKE]context[/STRIKE] dialogue [STRIKE]as[/STRIKE] below:

A: Who read my diary?
B: I didn't read it.
A: It is only you who read it.
B: I told you I didn't read it/I told you I hadn't [STRIKE]had[/STRIKE] read it.

Which one is correct?
Do we need to [STRIKE]shift back tense[/STRIKE] backshift to the past perfect in this situation?

Grammar books [STRIKE]write[/STRIKE] say that the standard way is to backshift, but sometimes we don't need to. [STRIKE]backshift[/STRIKE] [STRIKE]But[/STRIKE] I don't know if we need to backshift [STRIKE]for[/STRIKE] in this situation. If not, why not?

Please note my corrections above. Remember that "backshift" (verb) is one word, not two.
I don't know if "I told you I hadn't had read it" was a typo or if you really thought that was the past perfect from. As you can see, it should be "I told you I hadn't read it". Backshifting is possible in that dialogue but I would stick with "I told you I didn't read it" because it uses the same wording as B's first response, so it emphasises what they had already said.
It's a rather unnatural dialogue, though. I don't understand why A would ask who read their diary, and then say that B is the only person who read it.

 

[Rover_KE]

I have a dialogue as below:

Did you write it yourself? If so, please say so.

If you found it somewhere else, please tell us where you got it from and who wrote it.

 

[5jj]

Also asked here: https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/she-told-me-she-had-has-just-written-to-jack.3849397/

 

[LE AVOCADO]

Also asked here: https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/she-told-me-she-had-has-just-written-to-jack.3849397/

Yes, But I still don't get it clearly, I would like to hear more opinions.

 

[LE AVOCADO]

Please note my corrections above. Remember that "backshift" (verb) is one word, not two.
I don't know if "I told you I hadn't had read it" was a typo or if you really thought that was the past perfect from. As you can see, it should be "I told you I hadn't read it". Backshifting is possible in that dialogue but I would stick with "I told you I didn't read it" because it uses the same wording as B's first response, so it emphasises what they had already said.
It's a rather unnatural dialogue, though. I don't understand why A would ask who read their diary, and then say that B is the only person who read it.

Dear emsr2d2
Thanks for correcting my mistakes.


I wrote the incorrect one ("I told you I hadn't had read it"). The correct one should be "I told you I hadn't read it"

The conversation i took it from a movie between 2 children, who is a younger sister and a older sister. The younger sister is a mischievous child. So that, the younger sister thought her younger sister had read her dairy.

 

[LE AVOCADO]

[/QUOTE]

Did you write it yourself? If so, please say so.

If you found it somewhere else, please tell us where you got it from and who wrote it.

I didn't write it myself. I took it from a movie , between 2 children.

 

[Rover_KE]

In future, you need to give us such information in post #1, and to tell us that you have also received answers from another forum, with a link to them.

 

[Glizdka]

Not a teacher
-------

I'd go with "I told you I didn't read it" to keep things simple, past simple to be exact.

 

[jutfrank]

I told you I didn't read it! :tick:
I told you I hadn't read it! :cross:

The first (correct) sentence above is not really reported speech. This is because the speaker is not really reporting anything. The I told you part is just a way to express that she is repeating what she has already said just a few seconds ago. There's no reason to backshift here as the utterance I didn't read it!, which is a proclamation of innocence, is still very much present for both speaker and listener.