Learn English – Questions in indirect speech and verb tense change

indirect-speechpresent-tensesimple-pasttensesverb-agreement

Today I had another English lesson and all students were instructed by teacher to ask each other few predefined questions and then to report them. I got the following questions:

  1. "What kind of computers do you have?", which I reported as "He asked me what kind of computers I have."
  2. "What music do you like?", which I reported as "She asked me what music I like."

My logic is that in these cases the situation hasn't changed in the five minutes since the question was asked (I still liked the same music and my computers still weren't stolen) and it is OK to use the present tense here.

But my teacher corrected me and insisted that I should always use past tense without any exceptions. What am I missing here?

Update

I've checked 'English Grammar in Use' by Cambridge University. Quoting Unit 48, "Reported speech 2":

It is not always necessary to change the verb in reported speech. If you report something and the situation hasn't changed, you do not need to change the verb to the past:

direct: Paul said, 'My new job is very interesting.'

reported: Paul said that his new job is very interesting.

(The situation hasn't changed. His job is still interesting.)

You can also change the verb to the past.

Another example from the same book, "Additional Exercises, Reported Speech", 25.5:

What's your job?

How much do you earn?

Valid answers are:

He wanted to know what my job was and asked me how much I earned.

He wanted to know what my job is and asked me how much I earn.

The last example looks very similar to my own.

Best Answer

In English reported speech the present tense in the actual words spoken becomes the past tense in the words when they’re reported. The reported forms of those two examples are ‘He asked me what kind of computers I had’ and ‘She asked me what music I liked.’ The situation has changed. The speaker reporting the speech is referring to something that was the case in the past, if only in the very recent past.

As others have said, this is not invariably so. As the authors of the ‘Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English’ write:

The original speech or thoughts may have been in present tense, but past tense is usually used for the report . . . Although this use of past tense in reported speech is common, reported speech also occurs with other tenses. [The present tense emphasizes] that the circumstances expressed . . are still continuing.

But if in doubt, change present tense in direct speech to past tense in indirect speech.

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