Reported speech help : D ! (mostly native english speakers)?

Question

if a bee told you : I believe i can fly

how do you say it using reported speech?

it said it believed it can fly or it said it believed it could fly?

thx

Answer 1

If you say 'believed' [past tense, indicative mood], you must use 'could' [past tense, indicative mood of 'can'].

You could say [conditional mood] the following:

The bee said it believes it can fly.

(Because after it said it, it continues to believe it.) The tense of 'believe' and 'fly' must agree, but not necessarily the tense of 'say.'

Answer 2

if you make the normal changes, it would be the second one : it said it believed it could fly.

But I think the "can" unchanged makes sense too. we do the same in French. But if you really want to follow the grammatical rules, it would be the second sentence.

Answer 3

It believed it could fly