REPORTED SPEECH I (statements)

REPORTED SPEECH 1

§  Direct Speech gives the exact words someone said. We use inverted commas in Direct Speech: “It’s raining,” she said.

§  Reported or Indirect Speech is used when we want to tell someone what someone else said. We use neither the exact words nor inverted commas in Reported Speech: She said (that) it was raining.

SAY, TELL and ASK
- to say to sb.	She said to Peter (that)…
- to tell sb.	She told Peter (that)…
- to ask sb.	She asked Peter…

PUNCTUACTION

- We capitalize the first word of the quoted sentence. The full stop, the question mark, the exclamation mark and the comma come inside the inverted commas. - The comma comes outside the inverted commas only when “he said/asked…” precedes the quoted sentence: “She is working,” he said. He said, “She is working.” “She,” he said, “is working.”

- We do not use a comma after the question mark: “Can I leave now?” I asked.       but: I asked, “Can I leave now?”

1. HOW TO REPORT STATEMENTS

STEPS TO BE FOLLOWED
1.‚said/told (that)…	“I’m leaving tomorrow,” he said. ð He said (that) (1) he (3) was leaving (2) the next day (4).
2. 1 tense ï
3. Change pronouns and possessive adjectives
4. Change “time and place words”

(1)  SAY, TELL and ASK
- to say to sb.	She said to Peter (that)…
- to tell sb.	She told Peter (that)…

(2)  TENSE CHANGE
Direct Speech	Reported Speech
Present Simple “I am tired,” said Julia.	Past Simple Julia said (that) she was tired.
Present Continuous “I am writing an e-mail,” said Tom.	Past Continuous Tom said (that) he was writing an e-mail.
Present Perfect Simple “We have had a bad day,” said Joe.	Past Perfect Simple Joe said (that) they had had a bad day.
Present Perfect Continuous “Joe has been working all day,” I said.	Past Perfect Continuous I said (that) Joe had been working all day.
Past Simple “We visited Alan,” said Muriel.	Past Perfect Simple Muriel said (that) they had visited Alan.
Past Continuous “We were talking about Jim,” she said.	Past Perfect Continuous She said (that) they had been talking about Jim.
Future Simple “Pete will/shall go,” they said.	Future Perfect Simple They said (that) Pete would go.
Future Continuous “Mia will be sunbathing,” said we.	Would + be + -ing We said that Mia would be sunbathing.
*Note that the Past Perfect Simple and Past Perfect Continuous remain the same in R. Speech.
MODAL VERBS
- Some modal verbs change when the reported sentence is out of date:
can He said, “I can speak German.” He said, “I can go to the party tomorrow.”	could (present reference) would be able to (future reference) He said (that) he could speak German. He said (that) he would be able to go to the party the next day.
will/shall	would
may/might	might
must / have to	had to
needn't He said, “I needn’t know it.” He said, “I needn’t go tomorrow.”	didn't need to/didn’t have to (present reference) wouldn’t have to (future reference) He said (that) he didn’t need to/didn’t have to know it. He said (that) he wouldn’t have to go the next day.
had better	had better
should	should

  

(4)  TIME and PLACE WORDS
- Time words can change or remain the same depending on the time reference:
Direct Speech	Reported Speech
tonight	that night
today	that day
now	then / at that moment
tomorrow	the following day / the next day
yesterday	the previous day / the day before
last night	the previous night / the night before
ago	before
next	the following / the next
this / that + noun these / those + noun this / these (time) this / that (as subject or object) these / those (as subject) these / those (as object) He said, “I hate these books.” He said, “Tim is coming this week.” He said, “This is a great film.” He said, “These are nice flowers.” He said, “I bought these yesterday.”	the / that the / those that / those it they them He said that he hated those/the books. He said that Tim was coming that week. He said that it was a great film. He said that they were nice flowers. He said that he had bought them the previous day.
here	there
come He said, “Will you come to my house?”	go He asked her to go to his house.
*Note that we don’t usually make any changes to time and place words when the information is still true at the moment of speaking/writing (up to date reporting): “I’ll see you tonight,” said Myriam. ð Myriam said that she’ll see us tonight.