[Grammar] Reported speech. "The next time it happens ..."

[charizma]

Hi,
I would like to check whether this reported sentence is correct or not:

"The next time it happens, I shall report it."

He said that the following time it would happen, he should report it.

Thanks a lot.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Re: Reported speech

Hi,
I would like to check whether this reported sentence is correct or not:

"The next time it happens, I shall report it."

He said that the next time it happened, he would report it.

Thanks a lot.

It's correct. Where did you hear it?

 

[Rover_KE]

charizma, please note that I have changed your thread title.

Extract from the Posting Guidelines:

'Thread titles should include all or part of the word/phrase being discussed.'

 

[jutfrank]

As always with reporting speech, there are several ways to do it, depending on several different factors. There are no special rules about this.

He said the next time it happens, he shall report it.
He said the next time it happens, he'll report it.
He said the next time it happens, he'd report it.
He said the next time it happened, he'd report it.
He said he'd report it next time.

You can go on with variations ...

 

[jutfrank]

I find that one very unnatural. He said "I shall ..." is normally reported as He said that he will/would ... .

I agree that will is probably more likely than shall. I don't think shall is unnatural, though. It's possible but less likely, yes.

 

[charizma]

Thanks a lot for your feedback,
I can't use 'shall' with third persons. I believe it must be used only with first persons I/we.
so I use 'should' in the reported senrence.

As for the first part, I accept 'happened' as you have stated above.

I believe that 'will' should not be mentioned in a reported sentence. We use 'would' instead.

So the final version is: He said that the next time it happened, he should report it.

PS. This is a grammar task in a student book / secondary level. The teachers supplied different answers about it.

Best regards

 

[jutfrank]

I can't use 'shall' with third persons. I believe it must be used only with first persons I/we.
so I use 'should' in the reported senrence.

No, that's not good reasoning. Firstly, you can use shall in the third person in the right place. Secondly, if you want a simple rule to follow, then change shall to will or would in reported sentences, not to should.

I believe that 'will' should not be mentioned in a reported sentence.

No, that's not true. will is very common in reported sentences.

So the final version is: He said that the next time it happened, he should report it.

No, don't use should. I suggest you use would.