Calling all grammar nazis

[ndw76]

So I have been teaching my students direct and reported speech and my boss insists that I teach exactly as per the grammar rules. You know, when changing from direct speech to reported speech present simple tense changes to past simple tense, past simple tense changes to perfect past tense, and perfect present tense changes to perfect past tense.

Well one of the Thai teachers put this sentence on a test.

"I have dinner with my sister." She said

I take that sentence to mean that having dinner with her sister is a regular occurrence. As such the reported version of that sentence should be

She said that she has dinner with her sister.

But is I go by the rules it should be

She said that she had dinner with her sister.

But this would mean that the dinner with her sister was a one off, which is not what the original sentense was getting at.


Of course the rule is valid as can be shown with this sentense.

"Does your mother have her own business?" She asked me.

Change to

She asked me if my mother had her own business.

I understand the 'have' in the above sentense to be more related to the question than to the ownership of a business.

So what is the rule for the previous sentense? "I have dinner with my sister." She said.

If I haven't melted your brain I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.