Lesson Writing: Article Review. Grammar: Reporting Verbs Warm up

Tenses and Their Uses

• Most often, reporting verbs, such as seen in fiction to show dialogue, are in the past tense, because as soon as a speaker says something, it is literally in the past. 
• George Carlin illustrates this in this example of reported speech: "I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman, 'Where's the self-help section?' She said if she told me, it would defeat the purpose."
• To contrast with words spoken once, putting a reporting verb in the present tense is used to show an adage, something that someone has said in the past and continues to say or presently believes. For example: "She always says how he's not good enough for you."