When the Rules Bend

Native speakers skip backshifting all the time. If the information is still true, many keep the original tense: "He said he is coming tonight" instead of "He said he was coming tonight." Textbooks call this wrong.

Reported questions follow their own pattern. The question word stays, but the word order becomes statement order: "She asked where I lived" (not "where did I live"). Yes/no questions use if or whether: "He asked if I was coming."