1.
Reported Statements
When do we use reported speech? Sometimes someone says a
sentence, for example "I'm going to the cinema tonight". Later, maybe
we want to tell someone else what the first person said.
- Direct speech: “I like ice
cream”
- Reported speech: She says
she likes ice cream
We don't need to change the tense, though probably we do
need to change the 'person' from 'I' to 'she', for example. We also may need to
change words like 'my' and 'your'.
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
she liked ice cream
|
Tense
|
Direct
Speech
|
Reported
Speech
|
|
present simple
|
“I like ice cream”
|
She said (that) she liked ice
cream.
|
|
present continuous
|
“I am living in London”
|
She said she was living in London.
|
|
past simple
|
“I bought a car”
|
She said she had bought a car OR
She said she bought a car.
|
|
past continuous
|
“I was walking along the street”
|
She said she had been walking
along the street.
|
|
present perfect
|
“I haven't seen Julie”
|
She said she hadn't seen Julie.
|
|
past perfect*
|
“I had taken English lessons
before”
|
She said she had taken English
lessons before.
|
|
will
|
“I'll see you later”
|
She said she would see me later.
|
|
would*
|
“I would help, but..”
|
She said she would help but...
|
|
can
|
“I can speak perfect English”
|
She said she could speak perfect
English.
|
|
could*
|
“I could swim when I was four”
|
She said she could swim when she
was four.
|
|
shall
|
“I shall come later”
|
She said she would come later.
|
|
should*
|
“I should call my mother”
|
She said she should call her
mother
|
|
might*
|
"I might be late"
|
She said she might be late
|
|
must
|
"I must study at the
weekend"
|
She said she must study at the
weekend OR She said she had to study at the weekend
|
*
doesn't change
Occasionally, we don't need to change the present tense into
the past if the information in direct speech is still true (but this is only
for things which are general facts, and even then usually we like to change the
tense):
- Direct speech: “The sky is blue”
- Reported speech: She said that
the sky is/was blue
2.
Reported
Questions
So now you have no problem with making reported speech from
positive and negative sentences. But how about questions?
- Direct speech: "Where do
you live?"
How can we make the reported speech here?
In fact, it's not so different from reported statements. The tense changes are the same, and we keep the question word. The very important thing though is that, once we tell the question to someone else, it isn't a question any more. So we need to change the grammar to a normal positive sentence. Confusing? Sorry, maybe this example will help:
In fact, it's not so different from reported statements. The tense changes are the same, and we keep the question word. The very important thing though is that, once we tell the question to someone else, it isn't a question any more. So we need to change the grammar to a normal positive sentence. Confusing? Sorry, maybe this example will help:
- Direct speech: "Where do
you live?"
- Reported speech: She asked me
where I lived.
Do you see how I made it? The direct question is in the
present simple tense. We make a present simple question with 'do' or 'does' so
I need to take that away. Then I need to change the verb to the past simple.
Another example:
Another example:
- Direct speech: "where is
Julie?"
- Reported speech: She asked me
where Julie was.
The direct question is the present simple of 'be'. We make
the question form of the present simple of be by inverting (changing the
position of)the subject and verb. So, we need to change them back before
putting the verb into the past simple.
Here are some more examples:
|
Direct
Question
|
Reported
Question
|
|
“Where is the Post Office,
please?”
|
She asked me where the Post Office
was.
|
|
“What are you doing?”
|
She asked me what I was doing.
|
|
“Who was that fantastic man?”
|
She asked me who that fantastic
man had been.
|
So much for 'wh' questions. But, what if you need to report a 'yes / no' question? We don't have any question words to help us. Instead, we use 'if':
- Direct speech: "Do you
like chocolate?"
- Reported speech: She asked me if
I liked chocolate.
No problem? Here are a few more
examples:
|
Direct
Question
|
Reported
Question
|
|
“Do you love me?”
|
He asked me if I loved him.
|
|
“Have you ever been to Mexico?”
|
She asked me if I had ever been to
Mexico.
|
|
“Are you living here?”
|
She asked me if I was living here.
|
3.
Reported
Requests
There's more! What if someone asks you to do something (in a
polite way)? For example:
- Direct speech: "Close the
window, please"
- Or: "Could you close the
window please?"
- Or: "Would you mind
closing the window please?"
All of these requests mean the same thing, so we don't need
to report every word when we tell another person about it. We simply use 'ask
me + to + infinitive':
- Reported speech: She asked me
to close the window.
Here are a few more examples:
|
Direct
Request
|
Reported
Request
|
|
“Please help me”.
|
She asked me to help her.
|
|
“Please don't smoke”.
|
She asked me not to smoke.
|
|
“Could you bring my book tonight?”
|
She asked me to bring her book
that night.
|
|
“Could you pass the milk, please?”
|
She asked me to pass the milk.
|
|
“Would you mind coming early
tomorrow?”
|
She asked me to come early the
next day.
|
To report a negative request, use 'not':
- Direct speech: "Please
don't be late."
- Reported speech: She asked us not
to be late.
4.
Reported Orders
And finally, how about if someone doesn't ask so politely?
We can call this an 'order' in English, when someone tells you very directly to
do something. For example:
- Direct speech: "Sit
down!"
In fact, we make this into reported speech in the same way
as a request. We just use 'tell' instead of 'ask':
- Reported speech: She told me to
sit down.
|
Direct
Order
|
Reported
Order
|
|
“Go to bed!”
|
He told the child to go to bed.
|
|
“Don't worry!”
|
He told her not to worry.
|
|
“Be on time!”
|
He told me to be on time.
|
|
“Don't smoke!”
|
He told us not to smoke.
|
Time
Expressions with Reported Speech
Sometimes when we change direct speech into reported speech we have to change time expressions too. We don't always have to do this, however. It depends on when we heard the direct speech and when we say the reported speech.
For example:
It's Monday. Julie says "I'm leaving today".
If I tell someone on Monday, I say "Julie said she was leaving today".
If I tell someone on Tuesday, I say "Julie said she was leaving yesterday".
If I tell someone on Wednesday, I say "Julie said she was leaving on Monday".
If I tell someone a month later, I say "Julie said she was leaving that day".
So, there's no easy conversion. You really have to think about when the direct speech was said.
Sometimes when we change direct speech into reported speech we have to change time expressions too. We don't always have to do this, however. It depends on when we heard the direct speech and when we say the reported speech.
For example:
It's Monday. Julie says "I'm leaving today".
If I tell someone on Monday, I say "Julie said she was leaving today".
If I tell someone on Tuesday, I say "Julie said she was leaving yesterday".
If I tell someone on Wednesday, I say "Julie said she was leaving on Monday".
If I tell someone a month later, I say "Julie said she was leaving that day".
So, there's no easy conversion. You really have to think about when the direct speech was said.
Here's
a table of some possible conversions:
|
now
|
then / at that time
|
|
today
|
yesterday / that day / Tuesday /
the 27th of June
|
|
yesterday
|
the day before yesterday / the day
before / Wednesday / the 5th of December
|
|
last night
|
the night before, Thursday night
|
|
last week
|
the week before / the previous
week
|
|
tomorrow
|
today / the next day / the
following day / Friday
|
