What's new on IELTS with Fiona

In yesterday's post, we saw these sentences:

"Men admitted that they had never changed a diaper".

"Men confessed to never changing diapers".

Stefano rightly questioned the grammar here.

Let's look at the Reported Speech rules.

[Single action]

• Direct speech: "I've never changed a diaper" (Present Perfect)
• Indirect speech: He said he had never changed a diaper. (Past Perfect)

[Regular habit]

• Direct speech: "I never change diapers." (Present Simple)
• Indirect speech: He said he never changed diapers. (Past Simple)

In these examples, the verb patterns of 'admit' and 'confess' cause problems.

When the men confessed, did they mean...

a) that they had never changed a diaper (single action)?

b) that they never usually change diapers (regular habit)?

It's hard to know. The difference is small but the grammar is quite different.

Here's how you can express both options using 'confess to + ing':

a) They confessed to never having changed a diaper (single action)

b) They confess to never changing diapers (regular habit).

Can you see the difference?

See the next post about using Past Perfect after verbs that take the 'ing' form.

DIAPER (US) = NAPPY (UK)