must used for obligation can remain unchanged or be reported by would
have to or had to:
‘If the snow doesn’t stop we must (will have to) return,’ said the coach.
The coach said that if the snow didn’t stop we would have to return.
‘You must start working now.’
He said that we must/had to/would have to start working right now.
must not with the 1st person usually remains unchanged; must not with
the 2nd and the 3rd persons remains unchanged or is expressed as a negative
command:
‘You mustn’t touch the wire.’ He said that I mustn’t touch the wire.
Or He said that I wasn’t to touch the wire. Or He told me not to touch the wire.
f) needn’t usually remains unchanged but can be changed to didn’t have
to/ wouldn’t have to:
‘If you can give me this book I needn’t go to the library.’
I said that if she could give me that book I needn’t/wouldn’t
have to go to the library.
‘You needn’t type these letters.’
The manager said that the secretary needn’t/wouldn’t have
to type those letters.
But note that the second sentence can be reported in the following way:
‘You needn’t type these letters.’
The manager allowed the secretary not to type those letters.
g) need and must in questions normally become had to:
‘Need I/Must I do the washing up?
The girl asked if she had to do the washing up.
7. Reported questions
1. When we turn direct questions into indirect speech, the reported clause is
an ‘if’-clause (if the question is general) or a ‘wh’-word clause (if the
question is special). Tenses, pronouns and possessive adjectives, and
adverbs of time and place change as in statements. Word order in an
indirect question is the same as in a statement. Do is not used. Question-
marks are omitted.
He said, ‘Did you see the visitors?’ He asked if I saw the visitors.
She asked, ‘What are you reading?’ She asked what I was reading.
2. Reported questions are introduced by the verbs of inquiry like ask, inquire,
wonder, want to know, etc. Ask can be followed by the person addressed,
but the rest of the verbs cannot.
She said, ‘Jane, where are you going?’
She asked Jane where she was going.
She wanted to know where Jane was going.
3. if or whether.
Normally both are used to introduce a general question in the reported speech
(if is more usual):
I wonder if/whether they would come in time.
But whether is used in the following cases:
a) When there is a choice, and both sides of an alternative are given:
He asked me whether I was going to get there by train or by bus.
b) whether or not:
He asked, ‘Do you want me to help you or not?’
He asked whether or not I wanted him to help me
or He asked if I wanted him to help me.
c) after prepositions and before to-infinitives:
She wondered whether to leave now or wait.
He can’t solve a problem of whether to marry her or her sister.
d) If the question contains a conditional clause. Otherwise there would be
two ifs:
She said, ‘If you have tome will you do it for me?’
She asked whether, if I had time, I’d do it for her.
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