Professional Documents
Culture Documents
2. Reporting verbs
3. Using the word THAT
4. Reported speech – changes
5. Pronouns
6. Third person singular verbs
7. Place and time expressions
8. Tense backshift
9. No tense backshift
10. Reporting questions
11. Reporting orders and requests
Reporting verbs
To report what someone said we usually use verbs such as:
For example:
How to report
When you quote what someone else has said (direct speech) it's very simple:
nothing changes and you put the statement between quotation marks.
But when you report a statement (tell it in your own words), there are obviously
some necessary changes.
Pronouns
I am => He is
In many cases, when you report someone's speech you are in a different place, and
almost always in different point of time (we usually report in the present what
someone told us before, in the past).
Examples for when and how to change place and time expressions:
this that
these those
here there
now then / at the time
today that day / yesterday
yesterday the day before / the previous day
a week ago / last week a week before / the previous week
last month the month before / the previous month
next year the following year
in three years three years from then
Note: With these things, always use your common sense. If you are reporting
something that someone said ten minutes ago, and your location is still the same,
and the time frame is still the same, then don't change these place and time
expressions.
For example:
Tense backshift
When reporting what somebody said in the past, the tenses of the verbs in the
reported statement go one step backwards.
I am sorry.
He said he was sorry.
Past perfect
Past perfect
(no change)
He said, "I had eaten cheese." He said he had eaten cheese.
Can Could
She said, "I can eat cheese." She said she could eat cheese.
Must Had to
She said, "I must eat cheese." She said she had to eat cheese.
Shall Would
She said, "I shall eat cheese." She said she would eat cheese.
May Might
She said, "I may eat cheese." She said she might eat cheese.
Would
She said, "I would eat cheese." She said she would eat cheese.
Could
She said, "I could eat cheese." She said she could eat cheese.
Should
She said, "I should eat cheese." She said she should eat cheese.
Might
She said, "I might eat cheese." She said she might eat cheese.
Ought to
She said, "I ought to eat cheese." She said she ought to eat cheese.
No tense backshift
When the reporting verb is in the simple past tense, the verbs in the reported
statement usually go one step backwards.
However, if you are reporting facts or something that is still true, you can keep the
verbs in the present:
Reporting questions
When reporting a question, you should also change the question into an indirect
question. In other words, you need to change this sentence so that it is a normal
positive sentence, not a question.