I'm having a bit of trouble understanding how to properly use reported speech, if in a direct sentence there's a conditional structure. Case in point:
- If I were rich I would have already bought that car.
Do I only need to backshift the whole sentence?
- He said that if he had been rich he would have already bought that car.
Or, another example, this time taken from The Wolverine movie.
- In three days, when they read his will, I will become the most powerful person in Japan.
If I wanted to recount what that person told me a while ago, and that thing doesn't hold true at the moment of speaking, would I just go:
- She told me that in three days when they read his will, she would become the most powerful person in Japan.
And, staying on topic of conditionals, could somebody tell me what exactly happened in just another quote from that movie?
- Mariko would have never gone through with the wedding, not once the will was revealed.
Best Answer
Mariko would never have gotten married--not after the will had been revealed.
When the contents of the will were revealed, Mariko had a reason to not get married.
To go through with something means to actually do it, to see it from start to finish, to complete something that is planned or contemplated.
He threatened me, but I knew he would not go through with it.
Once, in that sentence about Mariko, could be translated "immediately after". It refers to a situation that "comes-to-be-as-of-that-moment". "The very moment that..." or "as soon as".
Once I saw that look in her eyes, I knew it was she who had killed the cook.
Once he heard her goose-like laugh, he knew they could not spend a life together.
You cannot change your mind after leaping from a cliff. Once you've jumped, you've jumped.