I took some of a colleague’s classes while she was overseas. A student from that class is now coming to mine. She said she likes my teaching. She said she told her brother about me, and:
[1] He said you should join his class.
I was confused. Where is his class and why should I join it? I asked her something along those lines, and she said either:
[2] He said, “You should join his class”.
or
[3] He said I should join your class.
One of the rules of changing direct quotations into indirect ones is pronoun changes, especially I and you. Another is that direct quotations are usually indicated in speech by a slight pause before the quoted words. She hadn’t paused, or hadn’t paused long enough.
Interpreting [1] as an indirect quotation, as I did, gives:
[1’] “He [brother] said you [teacher] should join his [brother’s] class”.
This is the equivalent of:
Continue reading[4] He said, “He should join my class”.