Reported Speech Prepared by: Alejandra Aguero

Ortega11th Graders

2008

Reported Speech

There are two ways to report: Directly (with quotations) Rachel: “I’m very sad.” Indirectly (paraphrasing) Rachel said that she was very

sad.

Changing Tenses

Form in Direct Speech Reported Speech

Simple Present Simple Past

Present Progressive Past Progressive

Present Perfect Progressive

Past Perfect Progressive

Simple Past, Present Perfect, Past Perfect

Past Perfect

Will, may, can, must Would, might, could, had to

Reporting Verbs

Reporting Verbs

The most frequently use verbs to report speech are: tell and say.

You normally use the simple past form of each verb to report.

However, if you use the reporting verb in present, you must use the verb in present too.

Tell

Use tell when you include the listener.

Example: I told my mother (that) Rachel was

very sad.

Say

When you use say you do not include the listener.

Example: Rachel said (that) she was very

sad.

Orders and Requests We can use the structure tell/ask someone

to do something. Examples: “Please, move this car.”A policeman told me to move the car.

“Would you mind turning the music down?”

We asked our neighbors to turn the music down.

Questions

-Wh Questions

We report questions with ask. Examples: “When did you start acting, Melissa?”Gary asked Melissa when she had

started acting. “What’s the time?”I asked the boy what the time was.

Yes/No Questions

“Has the taxi arrive yet?”Someone asked me if the taxi had

arrived yet. “Can we take pictures?”The tourists asked if they could take

pictures.

Practice

“I have read four books.”

“Check the newspaper today. It is interesting”

“I was drunk so I called a friend to come and pick me up.”

“I am hiding from the police. Can you help me?”

“Why is the baby crying?”

“Mom, can you feed the cat? ”

“I feel so lonely. ”