Alex said not to lose hope when a doctor.........

[sb70012]

1. Direct = Alex said, “Don’t lose hope when a doctor says survival is impossible.”
2. Indirect = Alex said not to lose hope when a doctor says survival is impossible.
3. Indirect = Alex said not to lose hope when a doctor said survival was impossible.

Hi
2 is correct or 3 or both?

Thank you

 

[MikeNewYork]

1. Direct = Alex said, “Don’t lose hope when a doctor says survival is impossible.”
2. Indirect = Alex said not to lose hope when a doctor says survival is impossible.
3. Indirect = Alex said not to lose hope when a doctor said survival was impossible.

Hi
2 is correct or 3 or both?

Thank you

Again, we have the problem of quoting something said in the past that continues to be true in the present. I would go with number 2. Even stronger in this case, I would reject number 3.

 

[Bide]

2 and 3 are both good. I find 2 a bit strange, as, 'when a doctor says survival is impossible.', through its use of the Present Tense implies that this is something which occurs regularly. Probably, for any given person at least, this situation will not occur more than once, although it is conceiveable.
If the doc is right, you will definitely only hear this once!!

3. also implies that the lucky person survived. 'survival was impossible', said the doc, and yet, here you are! Alex was right.

4. Indirect = Alex said not to lose hope when a doctor said that survival is impossible.

Doc may err!

 

[tzfujimino]

Hello.:-D

I find "Alex said not to lose hope..." ungrammatical.

I think it should be "Alex said that I/we/he/she etc shouldn't/mustn't lose hope..." or "Alex told me/us/him/her etc not to lose hope..."

 

[tzfujimino]

I'd like to take back what I said in #4.

I've just found "say to do something" is OK.
say - Definition from Longman English Dictionary Online

I'm really sorry. I didn't know "say to do something = tell somebody to do something" is possible.

(Edit) Please check this post, Odessa Dawn.

 

[sb70012]

Hello again,
I found a note in my book with some examples, I think according to that note, using (said-was) in post #1 sentence #3 can be correct.
This is the note:
When a reporting verb is in the simple past tense, backshifting is optional when:
The direct speech refers to something that’s still true or the direct speech refers to a scientific or general truth.

Look at the examples which look like to my sentence #3 in Post #1:

Direct = He found, “the Earth is the fifth largest planet in the solar system.”

Indirect = He noted that the Earth is the fifth largest planet in the solar system.

Indirect = He noted that the Earth was the fifth largest planet in the solar system.

So according to this, in post #1 sentence #3, using both (said-was) or (says-is) is correct.
I also took a picture of my book page. If you click here you can see it.

Aren't I right?

 

[Nicklexoxo]

Hello again,
I found a note in my book with some examples, I think according to that note, using (said-was) in post #1 sentence #3 can be correct.
This is the note:
When a reporting verb is in the simple past tense, backshifting is optional when:
The direct speech refers to something that’s still true or the direct speech refers to a scientific or general truth.

Look at the examples which look like to my sentence #3 in Post #1:

Direct = He found, “the Earth is the fifth largest planet in the solar system.”

Indirect = He noted that the Earth is the fifth largest planet in the solar system.

Indirect = He noted that the Earth was the fifth largest planet in the solar system.

So according to this, in post #1 sentence #3, using both (said-was) or (says-is) is correct.
I also took a picture of my book page. If you click here you can see it.

Aren't I right?

Hi.
I'm not a teacher nor a native speaker. I think this sentence is perfectly correct, so I'd say it:

He noted that the Earth is the fifth largest planet in the solar system.

 

[5jj]

sb, you are posting a lot of questions about direct and indirect speech. Basically they are all about the same thing, and you know the answer. If you are going to report the actual words used (which we rarely do, as has been pointed out in another thread), then:

When a reporting verb is in the simple past tense, backshifting is optional when:
The direct speech refers to something that’s still true or the direct speech refers to a scientific or general truth.