Touchstone 2nd Edition • Language summary • Level 4

Unit 9 • Lesson C: He was telling me . . .

Vocabulary
Love and marriage
diamond ring (n)
fiancé (male) / fiancée (female) (n)

Earning and spending money

make a fortune (v)
pay (the best) salary (v)
pay for (something) on credit cards (v)
sell something online (v)

Other words
risky (adj)
apparently (adv)
evidently (adv)
billionaire (n)
According to . . . (prep)
pay off (= be successful) (v)

Conversation strategies
Reporting a conversation
When you are telling someone news, you can use past continuous reporting verbs to focus on
the content rather than the actual words you heard:

Max was telling me that Lee had no idea they were in debt.

When people talk about things that are still true, they often don't "shift" tenses:

Max was telling me that Jeff and Lee aren't getting along that well.

© Cambridge University Press 2014 Unit 9, Lesson C, Page 1

Touchstone 2nd Edition • Language summary • Level 4

Quoting information
When you quote information you've heard, you can use these expressions to say where you
heard it:

• (Person) was telling me / was saying / told me . . .

Max was telling me / was saying / told me that Jeff and Lee aren't getting
along that well.

• (As) (person) said, " . . . "

(As) he said, "Money can't buy happiness."

• According to (person), . . .
According to Max, Jeff and Lee aren't getting along that well.
Use According to with other people's names. Don't use it with me.

You can use these expressions when you don't say where you heard the information:

Apparently, . . . Evidently, . . .
I was told . . . I('ve) heard . . .
They say . . . I('ve) read . . .

I heard / Apparently / Evidently / I was told / They say / I've read they're pretty
wealthy.

© Cambridge University Press 2014 Unit 9, Lesson C, Page 2