Everyday Grammar: Mastering Reported Speech
To convert direct speech to reported speech, we must change all the present tenses in the direct speech to the corresponding past tenses in the reported speech. Example: Fiona said, "You are late." - Fiona said that I was late.
It's exactly the same if you use 'that' or if you don't use 'that'.) But, 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 (that) she liked ice cream.
Speech reports consist of two parts: the reporting clause and the reported clause. The reporting clause includes a verb such as say, tell, ask, reply, shout, usually in the past simple, and the reported clause includes what the original speaker said.
How to Teach Reported Speech in 3 Steps
Fun ways of practising Reported Speech
Practice. Provide students with a chart of the principal changes in reported speech (i.e. will -> would, present perfect -> past perfect, etc.). Ask students to practice the reported speech by beginning with a reported speech worksheet or by asking them to change sentences from direct to reported speech.
Direct and reported speech are two different ways to say what someone else said. In direct speech, we quote the exact words that a person said. ... Reported speech doesn't usually repeat the words exactly as the person said them. It typically changes the tense of the verbs.
How to Use Direct and Indirect Speech
Direct Speech: He says, “I am ill.” Indirect Speech: He says that he is ill. Direct Speech: She says, “She sang a song.” Indirect Speech: She says that she sang a song.
Direct speech describes when something is being repeated exactly as it was – usually in between a pair of inverted commas. ... An obvious difference is that with indirect speech, you won't use inverted commas. For example: She said to me that she would come home by 10pm.
General rules for changing direct speech into indirect speech. Omit all inverted commas or quotation marks. End the sentence with a full stop. If the verb inside the inverted commas/quotation marks is in the present tense, change it into the corresponding past tense.
Reported Speech (also called Indirect Speech) is used to communicate what someone else said, but without using the exact words. A few changes are necessary; often a pronoun has to be changed and the verb is usually moved back a tense, where possible. EG: He said that he was going to come.
The general rules of direct speech are:
Quotation Marks
In this example, the punctuation still goes inside the speech marks of the first section. A punctuation mark is then used after the reporting clause, before the next set of speech marks. The second section of direct speech ends with the punctuation mark inside the speech marks.
Direct Speech : He said to her, "Where do you live?" Cambridge English Dictionary defines "direct speech" as "When you use direct speech, you repeat what someone has said using exactly the words they used." The given sentence, correctly converted to indirect speech, is : Indirect Speech : He asked her where she lived.
If we report what another person has said, we usually do not use the speaker's exact words (direct speech), but reported (indirect) speech....Questions.
A reported question is when we tell someone what another person asked. To do this, we can use direct speech or indirect speech. ... indirect speech: He asked me if I liked working in sales. In indirect speech, we change the question structure (e.g. Do you like) to a statement structure (e.g. I like).
Reported Orders, Commands and Requests are formed using the to-infinitive and not to-infinitive. The reporting verbs for the orders/ commands/ requests are: order, shout, demand, warn, beg, command, tell, insist, beseech, threaten, implore, ask, propose, forbid…
Reporting verbs are used to report what someone said more accurately than using say & tell. verb + infinitive. agree, decide, offer, promise, refuse, threaten. They agreed to meet on Friday. He refused to take his coat off.
Grammar explanation When we tell someone what another person said, we often use the verbs say, tell or ask. These are called 'reporting verbs'. However, we can also use other reporting verbs. Many reporting verbs can be followed by another verb in either an infinitive or an -ing form.
A reporting verb is a word which is used to talk about or report on other people's work. Reporting verbs can be used to great effect, but the difficulty with using them is that there are many, and each of them has a slightly different and often subtle meaning. Introduction.
Reported statements are one form of reported speech. direct statement. reported statement. He said, "I am sick." He said that he was sick.