Reported Speech
This is what I understand the rules for reported speech to be in French. I've tried to give a visual summary of them here but if anyone thinks I have got this wrong then please tell me. Here goes
1. Put the common tenses in chronological order.
ie. Plus que parfait, Passe compose, Imparfait, Present, Conditional, Future
You can now use these rules to make the conversions for reported speech. Here are examples for each of the 6 possibilities above:
Passé composé becomes plus que parfait
“It rained” What did he say? “He said that it had rained”
« il a plu » qu’est qu’il a dit ? « Il a dit qu’il avait plu »
eg. Present becomes imparfait
"It is raining" What did he say? "He said that it was raining"
« Il pleut » qu'est qu'il a dit? « Il a dit qu'il pleuvait »
eg Future becomes conditional
"It will rain" What did he say? "He said that it could rain"
« Il pleuvra » qu'est qu'il a dit? « Il a dit qu'il pleuvrait »
eg Plus que parfait stays the same
“It had rained” What did he say? “He said that it had rained”
« il avait plu » qu’est qu’il a dit ? « Il a dit qu’il avait plu »
eg Imparfait stays the same
"It was raining" What did he say? "He said that it was raining
« Il pleuvait » qu'est qu'il a dit? « Il a dit qu'il pleuvait »
eg Conditional stays the same
"It could rain" What did he say? "He said that it could rain"
« Il pleuvrait » qu'est qu'il a dit? « Il a dit qu'il pleuvrait »
