Is "Meera said she would submit the project tomorrow" correct?
On Tuesday, Meera said, "I will submit the project tomorrow". Reporting this on Wednesday, Tanu writes "Meera said she would submit the project tomorrow", keeping the word "tomorrow" as is. Is Tanu right?
Who do you think is right? Pick one.
The answer: No, it should be "the next day"
Why
Tanu is doing exactly what feels safest, quoting the time word Meera used without changing it. But "tomorrow" is a word whose meaning depends entirely on WHEN it's said — Meera's "tomorrow" on Tuesday meant Wednesday, but repeating the literal word "tomorrow" in a report given on Wednesday would now confusingly point to Thursday instead, a full day off from what Meera actually meant. Just as pronouns shift to stay pointed at the right people, time words shift to stay pointed at the right day, regardless of when the reporting happens: "today" becomes "that day", "tomorrow" becomes "the next day", "yesterday" becomes "the day before". Test: imagine reporting Meera's sentence a full week later — "the next day" still correctly points to that Wednesday, whereas the word "tomorrow" would by then point to a totally different, wrong date. No, it should be "the next day": time words in reported speech shift to stay anchored to the original moment, since the meaning of words like "tomorrow" depends on when they're said.
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