Ok, It is hard to identify the boundary between "present" & "past".
You say a sentence & a few seconds later that sentence was in the past.
You say "I like music" to me at this moment. Then, a few seconds later, in order to report the saying, should I say:
She says she likes music.
or
She said she liked music.
I think all sentences "She says …" don't make sense because at the time you say it that sentence was in the past.
But, in textbook, they do have example "She says she likes music.".
so, Is the sentence "she says…." always illogical because at the time you say it the time was past and it was in the past?
Best Answer
"She says she likes music" would very rarely be used for example when a translator reports what a french speaking woman is saying right now. She says in French "I like music" and the English translator says "She says she likes music".
Normally it means: "She would say that she likes music whenever you ask her and sometimes even if you don't ask". If someone states "she says she likes music" instead of "she likes music" it means the person saying this is not convinced that she likes music. That may be either a neutral statement, or it may indicate the person things she is making it up.
"She told me she likes music" is different - it means she said it once, to me in person. "She says she likes music" doesn't mean she ever told me that she likes music, I might have heard this second hand from people who know here better.