Question

He has said he would have been reading the book by the time I had asked him to give it back

Answer 1

Он сказал, что прочитает (совершенное время в будущем) книгу к тому времени, к которому я попросил вернуть ее.

Answer 2

Он сказал, что прочитает/прочитал (не уверена, какой ответ) книгу к тому времени, как я попрошу/попросил отдать ее

Answer 3

The sentence you provided suggests that the person mentioned had expressed their intention to read the book before you asked them to return it. The sentence uses a combination of past perfect and past simple tenses to express the sequence of events. Here is a breakdown of the tenses used:

• "He has said" - This is in the present perfect tense, indicating that at some point in the past, the person stated something.
• "he would have been reading" - This is a hypothetical past continuous tense. It suggests that if certain conditions were met (such as you not asking for the book back), he would have been in the process of reading the book at that time.
• "by the time I had asked him" - This is in the past perfect tense, indicating that your request to return the book occurred before the hypothetical situation of him reading it.

Overall, the sentence conveys the idea that the person had mentioned their intention to read the book, and if you hadn't asked for it back, they would have been reading it at the time you made the request.