could (reported speech)

In the English Grammar Profile, B2 point 138 in the category of MODALITY is defined as:

could as the past form of ‘can’ in reported speech

For example:

Victim support arrived at our door and told us that we could expect to write off the next five years to grief.

TED

The following clusters from iWeb were searched with varying the spaces between said|told * * * could

1 SAID HE COULD 13770

1 SAID HE COULD SEE 543
2 SAID HE COULD GET 186
3 SAID HE COULD HEAR 161
4 SAID HE COULD TELL 161
5 SAID HE COULD FEEL 122
6 SAID HE COULD MAKE 120
7 SAID HE COULD UNDERSTAND 97
8 SAID HE COULD HELP 93
9 SAID HE COULD GO 86
10 SAID HE COULD TAKE 74
11 SAID HE COULD FIND 67

12 SAID HE COULD FIX 55

  Idaho State Journal

BACK IN BUSINESS: CEED Director undergoes life-saving heart surgery in New York amid pandemic

He said he could fix me 100 percent and after that I was convinced Mount Sinai was where I needed to go.” While Street was ready for New …

13 SAID HE COULD GIVE 55

14 SAID HE COULD SMELL 52

2 SAID THEY COULD 7342
3 SAID IT COULD 7171
4 SAID I COULD 6065
5 SAID SHE COULD 5581

1 TOLD ME I COULD 3005

  Men’s Journal

I Attended the Firefly Gathering & Here’s What I Learned

He told me I could live on $4,400 a year. “We pray for the apocalypse every day,” he told me. “Something has got to change. We’re screwing it all up.”

2 SAID THAT HE COULD 1698
2 TOLD ME THAT I COULD 1067

5 SAID THERE WAS NOTHING THEY COULD 219

  Coventry Live

Call for action after trash is ‘fly-tipped by the lorry load’ in Wood End

The fire service came out and took one look to see the problem but they said there was nothing they could do because they have got to go …