Reported Speech
Reported Statements
When do we use reported speech? Sometimes someone says a sentence, for example "I'm going to the cinema tonight". Later, maybe we want to tell someone else what the first person said. Here's how it works: We use a 'reporting verb' like 'say' or 'tell'. If this verb is in the present tense, it's easy. We just put 'she says' and then the sentence: |
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- Direct speech: “I like ice cream”
- Reported speech: She says she likes ice cream
We don't need to change the tense, though probably we do need to change the 'person' from 'I' to 'she', for example. We also may need to change words like 'my' and 'your'.
But, if the reporting verb is in the past tense, then usually we change the tenses in the reported speech:
- Direct speech: “I like ice cream”
- Reported speech: She said she liked ice cream
Occasionally, we don’t need to change the present tense into the past if the information in direct speech is still true (but this is only for things which are general facts, and even then usually we like to change the tense):
- Direct speech: “The sky is blue”
- Reported speech: She said that the sky is/was blue
Reported Questions
So now you have no problem with making reported speech from positive and negative sentences. But how about questions?
- Direct speech: "Where do you live?"
In fact, it's not so different from reported statements. The tense changes are the same, and we keep the question word. The very important thing though is that, once we tell the question to someone else, it isn't a question any more. So we need to change the grammar to a normal positive sentence. Confusing? Sorry, maybe this example will help:
- Direct speech: "Where do you live?"
- Reported speech: She asked me where I lived.
Another example:
- Direct speech: "where is Julie?"
- Reported speech: She asked me where Julie was.
So much for 'wh' questions. But, what if you need to report a 'yes / no' question? We don't have any question words to help us. Instead, we use 'if':
- Direct speech: "Do you like chocolate?"
- Reported speech: She asked me if I liked chocolate.
Reported Requests
There's more! What if someone asks you to do something (in a polite way)? For example:
- Direct speech: "Close the window, please"
- Or: "Could you close the window please?"
- Or: "Would you mind closing the window please?"
All of these requests mean the same thing, so we don't need to report every word when we tell another person about it. We simply use 'ask me + to + infinitive':
- Reported speech: She asked me to close the window.
To report a negative request, use 'not':
- Direct speech: "Please don't be late."
- Reported speech: She asked us not to be late.
Reported Orders
And finally, how about if someone doesn't ask so politely? We can call this an 'order' in English, when someone tells you very directly to do something. For example:
- Direct speech: "Sit down!"
In fact, we make this into reported speech in the same way as a request. We just use 'tell' instead of 'ask':
- Reported speech: She told me to sit down.
Direct Order Reported Order“Go to bed!”He told the child to go to bed.
“Don’t worry!”He told her not to worry.
“Be on time!”He told me to be on time.
“Don’t smoke!”He told us not to smoke.
Time Expressions with Reported Speech
Sometimes when we change direct speech into reported speech we have to change time expressions too. We don't always have to do this, however. It depends on when we heard the direct speech and when we say the reported speech.
For example:
It's Monday. Julie says "I'm leaving today".
If I tell someone on Monday, I say "Julie said she was leaving today".
If I tell someone on Tuesday, I say "Julie said she was leaving yesterday".
If I tell someone on Wednesday, I say "Julie said she was leaving on Monday".
If I tell someone a month later, I say "Julie said she was leaving that day".
So, there's no easy conversion. You really have to think about when the direct speech was said.
Here's a table of some possible conversions:
nowthen / at that time today
yesterday / that day / Tuesday / the 27th of June
yesterday/ the day before yesterday / the day before / Wednesday / the 5th of December
last night/ the night before/ Thursday night
last week /the week before / the previous week
tomorrow today / the next day / the following day / Friday