These questions ask you to preserve who, when, where and which thing the original speaker meant after the viewpoint has changed. Some also require the verb tense to match a later or current reporting frame.
Rebuild the viewpoint in separate passes
First identify the original speaker, the person addressed and the owner of every possession. Replace first- and second-person forms with pronouns that name those same people from the reporter's viewpoint. Next draw a simple time line: locate the original speaking day, then move expressions such as today, tomorrow and yesterday relative to that day. Finally compare the original and reporting locations and decide whether a nearby object or place has become distant.
| Signal in the frame | Shift to consider |
|---|---|
| The speaker is now referred to by someone else | Change I and my to the third-person forms that match the speaker; change you and your to forms that match the actual addressee. |
| The report is made on a later day | Use that day for today; the next day or the following day for tomorrow; the day before or the previous day for yesterday. |
| The report is made in a different place | Use there for a place that was here to the original speaker but is away from the reporter. |
| The referred object is no longer immediately present | Use that rather than this, while keeping singular and plural agreement consistent. |
Now make a separate tense pass. After a past reporting verb in a clearly completed frame, move a present form one step into the past, will to would, can to could, and a sequenced past event to the past perfect when the time relation needs marking. After a present reporting verb, normally keep the tense even if place or pronouns must change. Read the frame rather than shifting every word automatically.
Where viewpoint shifts go wrong
| Tempting shortcut | How to reject it |
|---|---|
| Keeping I or my because those words appeared in the quotation | Those forms belong to the original speaker's position. Label the speaker, addressee and owner before choosing each replacement pronoun. |
| Keeping tomorrow in a report made several days later | Tomorrow would then point forward from the reporting day. Preserve the original one-day-forward relation with a relative expression. |
| Turning yesterday into a forward-looking expression | Yesterday points one day back from the original speaking day. Keep that direction when you relocate it in the report. |
| Keeping here after the reporter has moved elsewhere | Here names the reporter's present location. If the intended place is the earlier location, the distance signal must change. |
| Changing only one part of a sentence with several viewpoint markers | Check pronoun, ownership, demonstrative, day and place independently. One unchanged marker can silently point to a different person, object, date or location. |
Try it
Direct from Rina to Paul: "I left your sketchbook in my van." Paul later reported: Rina said ___ .
- I had left your sketchbook in my van
- she had left your sketchbook in his van
- she had left his sketchbook in her van
- he had left her sketchbook in their van
Direct from Priya during a completed survey on Tuesday: "I am sending the samples today." In Friday's review, Priya said that she ___ on that day.
Select all that apply: which reports correctly shift yesterday in Kojo's words, "I completed the mural yesterday", when repeated four days later?
- Kojo said he had completed the mural yesterday.
- Kojo said he had completed the mural the day before.
- Kojo said he had completed the mural tomorrow.
- Kojo said he had completed the mural the previous day.