Suppose that my boss had a talk with me yesterday morning. He told me “You will have a meeting next week.” After a while, I called my wife and told her what the boss said. At the time, can I say to my wife that my boss told me I would have a meeting next week? I was wondering if the “would” can be used here. Do you think there are any other tenses to express the same meaning. For example, I told my wife I have a meeting next week, or I told my wife I will have a meeting next week. As for the three sentences above, which one is correct and which ones are incorrect? Please explain the reasons. Thank you very much.
If you’re reporting speech, then, as you say, will becomes would.
‘I told my wife I have a meeting next week’ is possible, but so is ‘I told my wife I had a meeting next week’. It depends on the timeframe and how you want to emphasise it.
‘I told my wife I will have a meeting next week’ would not be the usual way of putting it. Because will normally becomes would in reported speech, it would probably occur as ‘I told my wife I will have a meeting next week’.
These sentences are useful for illustrating certain points of grammar, but they are unlikely to occur quite in this way in actual conversations.
answered Nov 30 '13 at 12:58
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1So sorry for my adding the comments late. I really appreciate your answer. It is quite clear. Thank you so much. – user57916 Dec 9 '13 at 15:30
Your question is rather confusing, but I will assume you are asking how you should report your boss's statement to your wife on the same day as the boss told you. Here are your three options:
"My boss told me I would have a meeting next week."
"My boss told me I have a meeting next week."
"My boss told me I will have a meeting next week."
In my opinion by far the most natural answer in the context I outline above is Option 2:
"My boss told me I have a meeting next week."
Option 3 is possible, but Option 1 for me sounds more like a conditional missing an if-clause.
A second scenario is that you tell your wife at a much later date. Here there are only two possibilities:
"My boss told me I would have a meeting the next week."
"My boss told me I had a meeting the next week."
Note how in this context you need to add the definite article before next week (or the following week).
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Thank you,Shoe. It is you who always answer my questions. Your answer is really worth of much consideration. – user57916 Dec 9 '13 at 15:34
