Page:The New Latin Primer (Postgate).djvu/205

Rh The changes in Person (B) depend upon who is reporting the speech. Thus if the speaker reports his own words, the First Person remains unchanged.

Similarly for (C). The change of tenses is due to the fact that the speech is a thing of the past when reported. This is expressed by using a Secondary Tense, like dīxĭt he said, which is then followed by Secondary Tenses.

But if a Present can be used, as in quoting from a book, or a Future, as in predicting what a person will say, the Primary Tenses are not changed to Secondary.

§ 430. The following examples illustrate the foregoing rules. The Verb introducing the Ōrātiō Oblīquă is supposed to be in the Third Person and in a Secondary Tense, unless stated to be otherwise.