REPORTED SPEECH

Reported Speech

Reported Statements

When do we use reported speech? Sometimes someone says a sentence, for example

"I'm going to the cinema tonight". Later, maybe we want to tell someone else what the
first person said. Here's how it works:
We use a reporting verb like 'say' or 'tell'. If this verb is in the present tense, it's easy.
We just put 'she says' and then the sentence:

Direct speech: I like ice cream.

Reported speech: She says she likes ice cream.

We don't need to change the tense, though probably we do need to change the ‘person'

from 'I' to 'she', for example. We also may need to change words like 'my' and 'your'.
On the other hand, if the reporting verb is in the past tense, then usually we change
the tenses in the reported speech:

Direct speech: I like ice cream.

Reported speech: She said she liked ice cream.

Tense	Direct speech	Reported speech
present simple	I like ice cream	She said (that) “she liked ice cream”.
Present continuous	I am living in London	She said she was living in London.
past simple	I bought a car	She said she had bought a car OR She said she bought a car.
Past continuous	I was walking along the street	She said she had been walking along the street.
Present perfect	“I haven't seen Julie”	She said she hadn't seen Julie.
past perfect	“I had taken English lessons before”	She said she had taken English lessons before.
Will	“I'll see you later”	She said she would see me later.
would*	“I would help, but..”	She said she would help but...
Can	“I can speak perfect English”	She said she could speak perfect English.
could*	“I could swim when I was four”	She said she could swim when she was four.
Shall	“I shall come later”	She said she would come later.
should*	“I should call my mother”	She said she should call her mother.
might*	"I might be late"	She said she might be late.
must	"I must study at the weekend"	She said she had to study at the weekend.
* doesn't change.

Occasionally, we don't need to change the present tense into the past if the information in direct speech is still true (but this is only for things which are general facts, and even then usually we like to change the tense):

Direct speech: The sky is blue.

Reported speech: She said that the sky is/was blue.

Reported Questions

 

So now you have no problem with making reported speech from positive and negative sentences. But how about questions?

Direct speech: Where do you live?

How can we make the reported speech here? In fact, it's not so different from reported statements. The tense changes are the same, and we keep the question word. The very important thing though is that, once we tell the question to someone else, it isn't a question any more. So we need to change the grammar to a normal positive sentence.:

Reported speech: She asked me where I lived.

Do you see how I made it? The direct question is in the present simple tense. We make a present simple question with 'do' or 'does' so I need to take that away. Then I

need to change the verb to the past simple. Another example:

Direct speech: Where is Julie?

Reported speech: She asked me where Julie was.

The direct question is the present simple of 'be'. We make the question form of the present simple of be by inverting (changing the position of)the subject and verb. So, we need to change them back before putting the verb into the past simple. Here are some more examples:

Direct Question Reported Question

 

“Where is the Post Office, please?” She asked me where the Post Office was.

“What are you doing?” She asked me what I was doing.

“Who was that fantastic man?” She asked me who that fantastic man had been.

So much for 'wh' questions. But, what if you need to report a 'yes / no' question? We don't have any question words to help us. Instead, we use 'if':

Direct speech: Do you like chocolate?

Reported speech: She asked me if I liked chocolate.

No problem? Here are a few more examples:

 

Direct Question Reported Question

 

“Do you love me?” He asked me if I loved him.

“Have you ever been to Mexico?” She asked me if I had ever been to Mexico.

“Are you living here?” She asked me if I was living here.

 

Reported Requests

 

There's more! What if someone asks you to do something (in a polite way)? For example:

Direct speech: Close the window, please.

Or: Could you close the window please?

Or: Would you mind closing the window please?

All of these requests mean the same thing, so we don't need to report every word when we tell another person about it. We simply use 'ask me + to + infinitive':

Reported speech: She asked me to close the window.

Here are a few more examples:

Direct Request Reported Request

 

“Please help me”. She asked me to help her.

“Please don't smoke”. She asked me not to smoke.

“Could you bring my book tonight?” She asked me to bring her book that night.

“Could you pass the milk, please?” She asked me to pass the milk.

“Would you mind coming early tomorrow?”

She asked me to come early the next day.

To report a negative request, use 'not':

Direct speech: Please don't be late.

Reported speech: She asked us not to be late.

Reported Orders

And finally, how about if someone doesn't ask so politely? We can call this an 'order' in English, when someone tells you very directly to do something. For example:

Direct speech: Sit down!

In fact, we make this into reported speech in the same way as a request. We just use 'tell' instead of 'ask':

Reported speech: She told me to sit down.

Direct Order Reported Order

“Go to bed!” He told the child to go to bed.

“Don't worry!” He told her not to worry.

“Be on time!” He told me to be on time.

“Don't smoke!” He told us not to smoke.

Time Expressions with Reported Speech

Sometimes when we change direct speech into reported speech we have to change time expressions too. We don't always have to do this, however. It depends on when we heard the direct speech and when we say the reported speech. For example:

It's Monday. Julie says "I'm leaving today".

If I tell someone on Monday, I say "Julie said she was leaving today".

If I tell someone on Tuesday, I say "Julie said she was leaving yesterday".

If I tell someone on Wednesday, I say "Julie said she was leaving on Monday".

If I tell someone a month later, I say "Julie said she was leaving that day".

So, there's no easy conversion. You really have to think about when the direct speech was said.

Here's a table of some possible conversions:

now then / at that time

today yesterday / that day / Tuesday / the 27th of June

yesterday the day before yesterday / the day before / Wednesday / the 5th of

December

last night the night before, Thursday night

last week the week before / the previous week

tomorrow today / the next day / the following day / Friday

MAKE A REPORTED SPEECH ABOUT THIS VIDEO:

LOOK AT THIS SONG:

MAKE A COMMENT ABOUT THIS ENTRY WITH 5 LINES.



References:


© 2013 www.perfect-english-grammar.com
   

INDIRECT SPEECH

 

Direct and Indirect Speech

WATCH THE NEXT VIDEO ABOUT DIRECT AND INDIRECT SPEECH

Direct and indirect speech can be a source of confusion for English learners. Let's first define the terms, then look at how to talk about what someone said, and how to convert speech from direct to indirect or vice-versa.
You can answer the question What did he say? in two ways:

• by repeating the words spoken (direct speech)
• by reporting the words spoken (indirect or reported speech).

Direct Speech

Direct speech repeats, or quotes, the exact words spoken. When we use direct speech in writing, we place the words spoken between quotation marks (" ") and there is no change in these words. We may be reporting something that's being said NOW (for example a telephone conversation), or telling someone later about a previous conversation.

Examples

• She says, "What time will you be home?"
• She said, "What time will you be home?" and I said, "I don't know! "
• "There's a fly in my soup!" screamed Simone.
• John said, "There's an elephant outside the window."

Indirect Speech

WACHT THE NEXT VIDEO ABOUT INDIRECT SPEECH

Reported or indirect speech is usually used to talk about the past, so we normally change the tense of the words spoken. We use reporting verbs like 'say', 'tell', 'ask', and we may use the word 'that' to introduce the reported words. Inverted commas are not used.
She said, "I saw him." (direct speech) = She said that she had seen him. (indirect speech)
'That' may be omitted:
She told him that she was happy. = She told him she was happy.

'Say' and 'tell'

Use 'say' when there is no indirect object:
He said that he was tired.
Always use 'tell' when you say who was being spoken to (i.e. with an indirect object):
He told me that he was tired.

'Talk' and 'speak'

Use these verbs to describe the action of communicating:
He talked to us.
She was speaking on the telephone.
Use these verbs with 'about' to refer to what was said:
He talked (to us) about his parents.

WATCH THE NEXT VIDEO AND IDENTIFY ALL THE INDIRECT SPEECH PHRASES AND WRITE THEM IN YOUR NOTE BOOK:

WRITE A COMMENT IN THIS ENTRY ABOUT WHAT DID YOU LEARN FOR THE INDIRECT SPEECH?  5 LINES LIKE LESS.

 

RELATIVE CLAUSES

WATCH THE NEXT VIDEO AND MAKE A CONCEPTUAL MAP

We can use relative clauses to join two English sentences, or to give more information about something.
I bought a new car. It is very fast.
→ I bought a new car that is very fast.
She lives in New York. She likes living in New York.
→ She lives in New York, which she likes.

Defining and Non-defining

A defining relative clause tells which noun we are talking about:

• I like the woman who lives next door.
  (If I don't say 'who lives next door', then we don't know which woman I mean).

A non-defining relative clause gives us extra information about something. We don't need this information to understand the sentence.

• I live in London, which has some fantastic parks.
  (Everybody knows where London is, so 'which has some fantastic parks' is extra information).

Defining relative clauses:

1: The relative pronoun is the subject:
First, let's consider when the relative pronoun is the subject of a defining relative clause.
We can use 'who', 'which' or 'that'. We use 'who' for people and 'which' for things. We can use 'that' for people or things.
The relative clause can come after the subject or the object of the sentence. We can't drop the relative pronoun.
For example (clause after the object of the sentence):

• I'm looking for a secretary who / that can use a computer well.
• She has a son who / that is a doctor.
• We bought a house which / that is 200 years old.
• I sent a letter which / that arrived three weeks later.

More examples (clause after the subject of the sentence):

• The people who / that live on the island are very friendly.
• The man who / that phoned is my brother.
• The camera which / that costs £100 is over there.
• The house which / that belongs to Julie is in London.

Try an exercise where the relative pronoun is the subject here.
2: The relative pronoun is the object:
Next, let's talk about when the relative pronoun is the object of the clause. In this case we can drop the relative pronoun if we want to. Again, the clause can come after the subject or the object of the sentence. Here are some examples:
(Clause after the object)

• She loves the chocolate (which / that) I bought.
• We went to the village (which / that) Lucy recommended.
• John met a woman (who / that) I had been to school with.
• The police arrested a man (who / that) Jill worked with.

(Clause after the subject)

• The bike (which / that) I loved was stolen.
• The university (which / that) she likes is famous.
• The woman (who / that) my brother loves is from Mexico.
• The doctor (who / that) my grandmother liked lives in New York.

• Try an exercise where the relative pronoun is the object here
• Try an exercise about defining relative clauses, both subject and object here
• Try another exercise about defining relative clauses, both subject and object here

Non-defining relative clauses:

We don't use 'that' in non-defining relative clauses, so we need to use 'which' if the pronoun refers to a thing, and 'who' if it refers to a person. We can't drop the relative pronoun in this kind of clause, even if the relative pronoun is the subject of the clause. (Clause comes after the subject)

• My boss, who is very nice, lives in Manchester.
• My sister, who I live with, knows a lot about cars.
• My bicycle, which I've had for more than ten years, is falling apart.
• My mother's house, which I grew up in, is very small.

(Clause comes after the object)

• Yesterday I called our friend Julie, who lives in New York.
• The photographer called to the Queen, who looked annoyed.
• Last week I bought a new computer, which I don't like now.
• I really love the new Chinese restaurant, which we went to last night.

LOOK AT THE NEXT VIDEO AND  COMMENNT WITH YOUR PARTNERS

Prepositions and relative clauses

If the verb in the relative clause needs a preposition, we put it at the end of the clause:
For example:

• listen to

The music is good. Julie listens to the music.
→ The music (which / that) Julie listens to is good.

• work with

My brother met a woman. I used to work with the woman.
→ My brother met a woman (who / that) I used to work with.

• go to

The country is very hot. He went to the country.
→ The country (which / that) he went to is very hot.

• come from

I visited the city. John comes from the city.
→ I visited the city (that / which) John comes from.

• apply for

The job is well paid. She applied for the job.
→ The job (which / that) she applied for is well paid.

Whose

'Whose' is always the subject of the relative clause and can't be left out. It replaces a possessive. It can be used for people and things.
The dog is over there. The dog's / its owner lives next door.
→ The dog whose owner lives next door is over there.
The little girl is sad. The little girl's / her doll was lost.
→ The little girl whose doll was lost is sad.
The woman is coming tonight. Her car is a BMW.
→ The woman whose car is a BMW is coming tonight.
The house belongs to me. Its roof is very old.
→ The house whose roof is old belongs to me.

Where / when / why

We can sometimes use these question words instead of relative pronouns and prepositions.
I live in a city. I study in the city.

→ I live in the city where I study.
→ I live in the city that / which I study in.
→ I live in the city in which I study.
The bar in Barcelona is still there. I met my wife in that bar.

→ The bar in Barcelona where I met my wife is still there.
→ The bar in Barcelona that / which I met my wife in is still there.
→ The bar in Barcelona in which I met my wife is still there.
The summer was long and hot. I graduated from university in the summer.

→ The summer when I graduated from university was long and hot.
→ The summer that / which I graduated from university in was long and hot.
→ The summer in which I graduated was long and hot.

MAKE A COMMENT OF 5 LINES ABOUT WHAT DO YOU LEARN HERE?