Jack's interpretation of John's parting comment is reasonable. Jill: Did John leave without saying goodbye? John: Merry Christmas, ya filthy animals. There is no way to reconstruct the original from the paraphrased version. Paraphrasing in general and so-called indirect speech in particular is a lossy interpretation. In the right context, any of them can be a useful substitute. Verbs like "to propose", "to suggest", "to offer", "to ask" and "to require" are also close in meaning, but still not exactly the same. Neither of the verbs "to wish" and "to say" carry exactly the same meaning as the verb "to bid". He waved over his shoulder and said "ta-ta, toodles and such" while walking away from the man that he hoped to make his husband. He gently kissed her hand and whispered "Catch you on the flip-side, toots." Any of these, and countless more besides, are possible: He might have used the spoken word, or the written word, or sign language or interpretive dance or a video montage or a telepathic bond or goodness knows what else.Įven if we assume that he spoke words, we can only guess what those words might have been. It does not tell us how he originally conveyed that meaning.
This sentence tells us something about what he meant, or at least what whoever paraphrased it thought he meant. We have no idea what he said, or even whether he said anything at all. What is often called "indirect speech" is simply paraphrasing - reporting the meaning without reporting the speech itself. Either you report speech directly, or you do not report speech at all. Although common and sometimes even useful, that description is factually wrong. It is common to describe reported speech as either direct or indirect. For it to sound natural to my American ear, it would have to sound consistently old-fashioned: "He bade me fare-well" and "he bade me take my leave" don't sound at all awkward, even if they do sound a tad pretentious. Modern usage tends toward quantifiable proposals, involving such things as a number of dollars, a number of hours, a number of hands to win in a round of cards, and so on. This usage of the verb "to bid"* is archaic, if not obsolete - so much so that bidding good-bye seems awkward and strange to my ear. You're asking about a distinction that, to a native speaker, doesn't seem to exist. An obsolete past tense of bid is "bad", which is where "forbad" comes from however, the modern past tense of bid is "bade", which is where "forbade" comes from. There are other common verbal forms in English that are related to "bid" and so have the same or similar past tense and past participle forms:įorbid: past tense: forbad / forbade / forbid past participle: forbidden / forbidīide: past tense: bode / bided past participle: bidden / bidedĪbide: past tense: abode / abided past participle: abode / abidden /Īs you can see, "forbad" is a variant past tense of "forbid". To invite to attend summon: We were bidden to the wedding.Įven though the past tense of "bid" can be "bade" and the past participle "bidden" for these three particular definitions of "bid", they can both be "bid" as well, just as the other definitions of "bid" have a past tense of "bid" and a past participle of "bid" however, none of these other definitions of "bid" can have a past tense form of "bade" and a past participle form of "bidden" only these three specific definitions have alternate past tense and past participle forms. To issue a command to direct, tell, order: I did as I was bidden. These "bade / bidden" definitions are as follows: Some other meanings of the verb "bid" have their past tense and past participle forms as both "bid" whereas other definitions of "bid" use "bade" and "bidden" respectively. Its past participle is "bidden" in this sense. To utter (a greeting or salutation) to give expression to: I bade him farewell as he was leaving. In this sense, "bade" is the simple past tense of "to bid" with regard to this definition:
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