indirect speech

[Vladimir]

please,give a hand.the task is to put the following sentence into inderect speech:
"I wish we'd taken sleeping bags,then we could have spent this night comfortably," the tourist said.

The tourist said that he wished they'd taken sleeping bags,then they could have spent that night comfortably.

Is my answer correct?Thanks for your help.

[Mister Micawber]

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Yes, that's right. You cannot regress any more from past perfect. But is the tourist a 'he' or a 's/he'?
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Native English teacher at Mister Micawber's

[Vladimir]

Hi, Mister Micawber.

I'm a bit confused.I'm afraid I don't know whether the tourist is 'he' or 'she'.
Is it important to know?

Vladimir.

[Mister Micawber]

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No, it's not, but these days it is politically correct to consider the possibility of an unnamed person's being of either sex. I myself am enamoured of the newly-coined pronoun 's/he', but this is not yet generally accepted.
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_________________
Native English teacher at Mister Micawber's

[Vladimir]

Thank you, Mister Micawber, again.Frankly speaking I've never heard of 's/he'.
Reading it I thought that it's a slip of a finger of yours.When we use it we, men, pay respect to women, don't we?

[Mister Micawber]

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Yes, we do.
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Native English teacher at Mister Micawber's

[Alan]

Hi Vladimir,

Your conversion to indirect speech is indeed accurate but I think it's better wherever possible to leave out the he said/she said that construction and in the example you gave, I would simply say:

The tourist wished they'd taken .....

On the matter of the gender of the tourist, I would have thought that would be known since your original sentence is not talking about 'the tourist' in general. On the choice of 's/he', Charles, I am at odds with you since I abhor that construction. I always plump for 'they' whenever possible in generalised statements when you just don't know the gender of the person or when you want to refer to both genders. I would therefore write: When a child first goes to school, they have to learn to get on with others.

Alan
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English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story Present Simple

[Mister Micawber]

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Plump away, Alan-- I'll check back with you in a hundred years or so for a pronoun review.
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Native English teacher at Mister Micawber's

[Vladimir]

Thank you Mister Micawber and Alan.It was very useful and interesting for me
to find out your opinions.
The simpler the better.
Vladimir.