Instructions

• Slides 2 – 5 provide students with examples of reported speech. • Slides 6 – 10 provide students with grammar explanations. • Slides 11 to 14 – students practice. Have students, in pairs, report the speech displayed. Click on the slide to start the animation and then students can see the answer.

By Lilian Marchesoni

Take a pill a day and get some rest.

The doctor told me to get some

rest.The doctor said to take a pill a

day.

Don’t miss a dose of your medicine,

ok?

The doctor told me not to miss a

dose of my medicine.

Reported speech

If we report what another person has said, we

usually do not use the speaker’s exact words

(direct speech), but reported (indirect)

speech.

Quoted Speech reports a person’s exact words.

The doctor said, “Get some rest.”

He said, “Don’t get up.”

Reported Speech reports what someone has said but not the exact words. With reported commands,

use say or tell + an infinitive. Notice how say and tell are used differently. An object pronoun is used with tell.

The doctor said to get some rest.He told me not to get up.

Say or tell? Say can refer to any type of speech.

“Good night,” she said.She said she was unhappy.Jim said to meet him here.

Say is never followed directly by a person as an object: you must use ‘say something to someone’ for this.

She said goodbye to me at the station.She said me goodbye at the station.

Tell is used to report that someone has given information or an order, the verb tell is always followed by the person that the information or order is given to.

Simon told them all to stay inside the house.Oscar told the boys a wonderful story about a

giant.Oscar told to the boys a wonderful story about a

giant.

Say or tell?

Source: Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary – Second Edition

Get some sleep!

The doctor told her to get some

sleep.

The doctor said to get some

sleep.

Stay in bed!

The doctor told him to stay in

bed.

The doctor said to stay in bed.

Don’t eat junk food!

The doctor told him not to eat

junk food.

The doctor said not to eat junk

food.

Don’t walk too much!

The doctor told her not to walk too

much.

The doctor said not to walk too

much.