Reported speech

marks.

He says to you, ‘I’ll be back!’




DIRECT SPEECH

but not the exact words and without quotation marks.

He

tells you that he will not stop his work

We can report
statements,
questions
requests, commands, suggestions,

REPORTED SPEECH

when there’s no person the words were spoken to

I say,

‘You must understand the rule!’

Expressions with say
say good morning, etc, say something, say one’s prayers, say so
People who believe in God say prayers every day.

SAY

the words were spoken to.
I tell you that you must

understand the rule

Expressions with tell
Tell the truth, tell a lie, tell a secret, tell a story, tell the time, tell the difference, tell somebody one’s name, tell sb the way tell one from another

Dishonest people tell a lie instead of telling the truth.

TELL

tell, advise, explain, promise etc,) + a that clause. In

spoken English we don’t use that.

I say to you, ‘Reported speech will be in your test!’
I promise you that reported speech will be in your test!’

REPORTED STATEMENTS

‘We always bring our pens here’.
You say that you always

bring your pens there.

CHANGES

or Future) the verb tenses and time expressions are changed.

I

say now, ‘It is difficult to understand!’
I say now that it is difficult to understand.
But
Yesterday I said, ‘It is difficult to understand!’
The day before I said that it was difficult to understand.

said, ’I had done it. You said that you had

done it.),
Conditionals II and III
(We said, ‘We would do it if we had time.’ We said that we would do it if we had time.),
modals –could, might, should, ought to
(They said, ‘We should do our best!’ The said that they should do their best.),
tenses when the statement expresses something that is always true ( The professor said, ‘The earth goes round the sun’. The professor said that the earth goes round the sun.)

NO CHANGES

auxiliary verbs (do/does, did…) and without a question mark.
Pronouns, possessive

adjectives, tenses, time expressions etc. are changed as in statements.

REPORTED QUESTIONS

a question word.
A stranger asked, ’How can I get to

these islands?’
A stranger asked how he can get to that place.

REPORTED SPECIAL QUESTIONS

we use ask and if/whether.

Your friends asked you two days

ago, ‘Have you done this task?’
Your friends asked you two days before if you had done that task?’

REPORTED GENERAL QUESTIONS

(order, ask, tell, advise, offer, suggest, warn, beg) + someone

+ (not) to-infinitive
Your teachers say, ’Learn better, please!’
Your teachers ask you to learn better.

REPORTED COMMANDS,
REQUESTS, SUGGESTIONS

+ gerund
REPORTING VERBS