SAY AND TELL Say and tel/ correspond to dire in Italian but their usage is different. «= Tellis always followed by a person or a personal pronoun. She told Joe (that) she was coming. / Tell him (that) you're sorry. * Say does not need to be followed by a person or a personal Pronoun. When it is, we must use to. She said (to me): ‘I'm sad’ = With both say and tell, we can omit that. He said (that) he would be late. / He told me (that) he would be late. ‘Say (something Tell (someone to someone) ___ something) Direct It introduces direct It introduces an speech speech, either with or | imperative in direct without the person speech when the addressed. person addressed is He said (to her): ‘I've stated. started a blog’ ‘Inform me when he is back, he told me. Reported Itintroduces reported | It introduces reported Speech speech when there is | speech when the no person addressed. He said (that) he had started a blog. person addressed is stated. He told her (that) he had started a blog.Can She said: ‘I can swim well’ | Could She said (that) she could swim well. May : Kelly said: ‘| may come to the party! Might Kelly said (that) she might come to the party. Must | He said: ‘You must study harder’ Had to He said (that) | had to study harder. Imperative Adam said: ‘Call me!" Infinitive Adam said to call him. Reported speech is used to report what someone has said In reported statements, the tenses, personal pronouns and possessive adjectives often change. = |f the introductory sentence is in the past tense (e.g, He i wien said...), the tenses in the reported speech generally change by ‘moving backwards' in time. The past perfect, would and the modal verbs could, might, should and ought to stay the same in reported statements. They said: ‘She had tagged us in a photo’ They said she had tagged them in a photo. / ‘Tom might be late today; he said. > He said (that) Tom might be late that day. When the introductory sentence is in the present tense, the tenses stay the same in the reported speech. They do NOT move backwards. Lucy says: ‘like surfing the Net'> Lucy says (that) she likes surfing the Net. We use the structure tell/ask someone to do something ‘© report orders or requests. Mum told/asked me to switch off the TV. / Mum told/asked me not to switch off the TV.Reporting verbs There are a number of reporting verbs which can describe what someone has said (and how they said it) more accurately than say and tell. Here are some of the most common, along with the sentence structure to follow. = verb (+ object) + that: affirm, agree, answer, assure, complain, confess, declare, exclaim, explain, inform, point out, promise, reply, state, suggest, think. ‘I've already seen the film’ > She explained that she had already seen the film. / ll call you! > He promised me that he would call. / ‘Everything is going to be fine’ > They assured us that everything was going to be fine. = verb (+ object) + infinitive: advise, agree, invite, order, persuade, promise, refuse, threaten, warn. ‘Don't go to the party’ > He warned me not to go to the party. / ‘We'll help'> They agreed to help. = verb (+ object) + -ing form: recommend, suggest. ‘You should change bank’-> He recommended changing bank. / ‘Let's go to an Indian restaurant’ > She suggested going to an Indian restaurant.REPORTED QUESTIONS Reported questions are used to report what someone has asked. As with reported statements, the tenses, personal pronouns and possessive adjectives, as well as time and place expressions, usually change, especially when the introductory sentence is in the past tense, (See tables on page 238.) When we change a question from the direct form to the reported form, the following changes must happen. =» Inthe reported question we use the statement form, so the word order becomes: subject + verb. ‘Who is she?’ > He asked who she was. Therefore, in reported questions we do not use the auxiliary verb do (except in negative questions). ‘Do you like novels?’> She asked if I liked novels. » When we report yes/no questions, we introduce the reported question using if/whether. ‘Do you want to watch TV?’> He asked if/whether | wanted to watch TV. = When we report wh- questions, we introduce the reported question using the same interrogative pronoun/adverb as the direct speech. ‘Who was the murderer?’ She asked who the murderer had been. : = Reported questions end with a full stop and not a question mark. The most common verbs for reported questions are ask, wonder and want to know. ‘Are you coming to the dinner party?’ > He : wondered if | was coming to the dinner party. / ‘Will you dance with me?'> He wanted to know whether | would dance with him.