Summary of contents 2ºBTOPA

Unit 3: From Africa to Asia

- Unit 3. Topic 3: Paco was told to visit the Himalayas

1. Introduction
2. Reported Speech imperatives
3. Reported Speech statements
4. The use of gerunds and in nitives

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1. Introduction

In this unit we are going to learn about…

- Reported speech with imperatives
- Reported speech with statements
- The use of gerunds and in nitives

2. Reported Speech imperatives

Whenever we want to use reported or indirect speech, that is, whenever we want to
restate what someone else said in the past, we must take into account what the
speaker used the imperative for, since depending on his/her intention or the nature of
his/her words, we should use a reporting verb or another. Have a look at the following
chart to learn some of the most common reporting verbs to report imperatives.

Have a look at these examples to learn how to use reported speech with imperatives:

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Exercise 1.

3. Reported Speech statements

Example: turn the following text into Reported Speech

Nota importante: además de TELL o SAY usamos otros verbos para introducir una
oración en Reported Speech. Estos verbos se conocen como “reporting verbs”. Aquí
tienes algunos ejemplos:

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Exercise 2:

Exercise 3:

4. The use of gerunds and in nitives

What is an in nitive and what is a gerund?

• The in nitive is the base form of the verb + to (example: to play), which does not
refer to any number, person or case.
• The gerund is a verbal noun ending in -ing (example: playing).
These forms do not express temporal or personal relations on their own. The choice or
either form often causes some problems, but don't worry, you are going to learn it little by
little and you will nd it easy!

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Important reporting verbs followed by gerunds:

accuse somebody of- "You stole it,didn't you? " >They accused him of stealing
it
admit (to)- "Ok, it was me" >he admitted stealing (also: He admitted that he
had stolen it)
apologise for - "Im really sorry I stole it" > he apologised for stealing
confess (to) "Alright, it's a fair cop, you've got me. I stole it" >He confessed to
stealing
complain about "Hey, this is wrong, you can't arrest me" > he complained
about being arrested (Also: He complained that they were arresting him)
deny "I didn't take it" > he denied stealing (Also: He denied that he
had taken it)
insist on "I'm going to call my lawyer and that's final"> He insisted on
calling his lawyer
prohibit someone from > Officer, make sure he doesn't talk to anyone" > The
police chief prohibited the prisoner from talking to anyone
suggest > "Why don't we put him in a cell?" > He suggested putting him in a
cell (Also: He suggested that they (should) put him in a cell)

Exercise 4.

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