Present perfect in Reported Speech The Present Perfect (the other perfect tenses too) is a really confusing tense,

on one hand there is no doubt that it belongs to the family of the present tenses, on the other it often refers to the past. I have found my cat! It was on the tree. That brings us to the question of how the sentence behaves when introduced by the Present Perfect in the reported speech.

They said they wouldn't come to my party. They've said they _______ come to my party.

Do you know what the answer is? The answer is: won't. So, it is the same way as it would be with a present tense!

They say they won't come to my party.

NOTE: It doesn't mean that present tenses and perfect tenses always behave the same because they are still affected by the reported speech. "I haven't seen him for 20 years"

He said he hadn't seen me for 20 years.

"I don't see anything wrong about it"

He said he didn't see anything wrong about it.