SECONDARY MEANINGS OF THE PAST TENSE: PRESENT AND FUTURE REFERENCE
The Past tense can refer to time-frames other than the past in the following three ways:
• In ‘closed conditionals’ and other hypothetical subordinate clauses which express a counterfactual belief or presupposition on the part of the speaker. The reference is to present time. The past in such expressions was originally a subjunctive whose only relic remains in the form were for all persons of be.
If we had enough time . . . (presupposes we haven’t enough time)
He talks as if he owned the place. (he doesn’t own the place)
I often wish I were somewhere else. (I am not somewhere else)
• In reported speech or thought: after a reporting verb in the Past tense, the reported verbs in the dependent clauses are also in the Past. This phenomenon is known as ‘backshift’. Present tense forms are optional, as in She said she prefers/preferred vanilla ice cream, as long as the situation is still valid.
• In polite requests and enquiries, the past form ‘distances’ the proposed action, so making the imposition on the hearer less direct:
Did you want to speak to me now?
I wondered whether you needed anything.
