Reported speech

Reporting statements, questions, orders and requests

 TABLE OF CONTENTS

01 02 03 04 05

Reporting How to report

Direct and Verbs How to report y/n orders and
How to report
Indirect Styles questions and Wh requests.
statements
words questions
INTRODUCTION

The Reported Speech is

used when we want to tell to
someone what somebody
else has said.
So we reproduce what the
other person has
communicated but not in a
literal way, so, not in a direct
style.
 01
Direct and Indirect styles

The speaker reproduces exactly the same words that

Direct style other person said, that’s why we use quotations.

Dora said: “I am hungry”

“I am hungry”, Dora said.

Indirect style The speaker reproduces indirectly (so not literally)

or what the other person said.
reported speech We don’t use quotations because we are using our
own words.
 02
Reporting verbs
To report what somebody else said we need a reporting verb, the reporting verbs are verbs related to any aspect
of communication. These are the most common:

Verbs for reporting Verbs for reporting Verbs for reporting orders
statements questions and requests

Say, Tell, Advise, Agree,

Apologise, Decide, Tell, Order,
Ask, Demand, Command: Order
Encourage,
Quiz, Want to
Explain, Insist, Promise,
know Ask: Request
Recommend, Remind,
Suggest, Warn
03 How to report a statement
When we want to state what somebody else said we have to make some
changes. Have a look at the example:

”I live here”

Tom said that he lived there

03
How to report a statement
We have to make the following changes:

Tom said that he lived there

We change the adverb

and/or the time expression
We add ‘that’ We change the pronoun
We modify the tense of the
verb
 How to report a statement:
03
pronoun changes

Direct Speech Reported Speech

We They
I He/She
My His/Her
Our Theirs
Mine Hers/His
Me Him / Her
Us Them
 How to report a statement: Verb
03 modifications

Present
01

Past Simple 02 Present Perfect

02

03 Past Perfect
 How to report a statement: Verb
03 modifications

01 Present Continuous

Present Perfect
02 Past Continuous 02 Continuous

03 Past Perfect Continuous

 How to report a statement: Verb
03 modifications

Will
01

Would 02 Can
02

Rest of Modal Verbs

04 remain the same
03 Could
 Please, Notice

Past Simple, Present Perfect and Past Perfect change to

Past Perfect.
modals don’t change except: Will to Would and Can to
Could.
 How to report a statement:
03
adverbs changes

Direct Speech Reported Speech

Here There
Now Then
Today That day
Tonight That night
Tomorrow The next/following day
Yesterday The day before
Next week/month The next/following week/month
Last week/month The week/month before
 04 How to report questions
When reporting a question we have to notice is it is a yes or not question:
Do you like pasta? Or a Wh Word question: Where do you live?

Do you like to be
a teacher here?” Wh be a
to
Tom asked me if I liked to be
a teacher there.
y d tea
id y che
ou
de here

Tom asked me why I had

cid
r

decided to be a teacher there.

e
?
 How to report a Question:
04
Yes and no questions
To report a yes and no question, we always use If after the reporting verb, followed by
the normal verbs and adverbs modifications.

Tom asked me if I liked to be a teacher there

We change the adverb

We add ‘IF’ We change the pronoun and/or the time expression
We modify the tense of the
verb
 How to report a Question:
04
Wh words questions
To report a wh words question, we always use the Wh word after the reporting verb,
followed by the normal verbs and adverbs modifications.

Tom asked me Why I have decided to be a teacher

there

We modify the tense of the

We use the same wh word We change the pronoun
verb
We change the adverb
and/or the time expression
 Remember, these Why
Who
are the wh words

Where
How
When
Please notice: when a question is reported it is not a question
anymore, so we have to give it the normal order: Sub + Verb
+ object

Tom asked mE why I had decided to be a teacher

Who
 05 How to report orders and requests
When reporting an order or request, we don’t have to modify the verb tense
we just use the infinitive.

Ca
pl n
ea yo
Mike told Tom to wait for them.
for us! se u
Wait ? wa
it
fo
ru
s,

Kate asked Tom to wait for them.

05
How to report An order
To report an order we always use a reporting verb that means to give an order, the most
common one is to tell, then, we say who the order is addressed to and the infinitive with
to.

Mike told to Tom to wait for them

We change the adverb o

We add the person who the pronoun
We use told or other verb
that means ‘to give orders' order is given
We modify the tense of the
verb to the infinitive
05
How to report A request
To report a request we normally use the reporting verb to ask, then we tell who the
request is asked to, and the infinitive with to.

Kate asked Tom to wait for them

We change the adverb or

We normally use ask, other
verbs that can be used are:
beg, request…
pronoun
We add the person who the
request is asked to
We modify the tense of the
verb to the infinitive
 Other reports

Direct Speech Reported Speech

Advice
“You should study more” My friend advised me to study more

warning

“Don’t kiss my girlfriend or…” He warned me not to kiss his girlfriend

Invitation
“Will you come to my party?” He invited me to go to his party
 Other reports

Direct Speech Reported Speech

Suggestion
“Why don’t we go to the beach” My friend suggested to go to the beach

Apologise

“I’m very sorry I’m late” He apologised for being late

Thank
“Thank you for your help” He thanked me for my help