Had to/reported speech

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Had to/reported speech
Message from mohammad51 posted on 15-01-2019 at 12:29:56 (D | E | F)
Hello
Cold you help with this please ?
He said to me, " I had to finish this first." (direct)
He told me that he had had to to finish this first. ( indirect )
if (had to) is not changed, does this affect on meaning?
or: is it correct if not changed?
He told me, I had to finish this first. Couldn't be considered indirect ?
The origin is ( have to ) in the present.
1- of course all present tenses should be changed to past when reported.
2- past tenses should be changed to past perfect. ( this is rule)
3- modals in present changed to their equivalent in past , can to could , will to would and so on.
But for had to, we know that ( must \ have to ) changed to had to.
If the verb is (had)past simple according to the rule past simple >>> past perfect
But ( had to ) is a unique form. Example: You had to do this duty yesterday. = it is better to do it, or had better.
So, can I say for example " you had had to do it yesterday". ?
I noticed most of the grammar books don't mention it or don't give such a value.
But here in this page, it is mentioned:
Link

Could you get me out of this confusion ?

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Edited by lucile83 on 15-01-2019 13:38

Re: Had to/reported speech from lucile83, posted on 15-01-2019 at 13:59:39 (D | E)
Hello,
He told me that he had had to finish this first. ...ok,result: this is finished
He told me he had to finish this first. ...result: this is not yet finished

In your link,
A.He told me that he has to finish this first. ...not yet finished
B.He told me that he have to finish this first. ...have is wrong >> has
C.He told me that he had had to finish this first. ...ok, it is finished
D.He told me that he had to finish this first. ...had is wrong because of the sequence of tenses

Answer: Option C ...ok

Re: Had to/reported speech from gerondif, posted on 15-01-2019 at 15:56:35 (D | E)
Hello
a says to c : "I can't come tonight, I have to finish this test".
b asks : What was that ? What did he just say ? I didn't quite get it.
a answers : He said that he couldn't come tonight because he had to finish this test"

"I couldn't come yesterday because I had to finish this test." he said.
What was that ? What did he say ? I didn't get it.
He said that he hadn't been able to come yesterday /the previous night because he had had to finish this test"

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