REPORTED SPEECH

REPORTED SPEECH

Reported speech is used to tell somebody else what a person told you.

There is usually a change of tense when you tell somebody what another person told you before. This is called "backshift".

Reported (or indirect speech) is when we say what was said before. You said that you loved Chris. There are four things you need to remember to change. 1. The tense. If the events are now in the past, you need to change the verbs to the past forms. present simple changes to past simple present continuous past continuous present perfect past perfect will would shall should must had to can could is going to was going to 2. The pronouns. Words like 'I' and 'his' and 'they' will all change, because the people speaking have changed. 3. Some time expressions. If the time has changed, words like 'yesterday' are meaningless. Instead, we saythe day/week before or the previous day/weekthe following day/week or the next day/week 4. If the place has changed, "here" should change to "there".

Example:Direct speech: "After Robert left primary school, he grew up very quickly," said his mother. Robert´s mother said that after he had left primary school, he had grown up very quickly.

There are a number of different reporting verbs in English. Here is a list of common ones, showing the structures they can take:

ACCUSE OF + INGMark accused Doug of deliberately forgetting to tell him about the course.

admit + ... ingapologize for .... ing

argue for + .... ingdeny + .... ingexplain that ......insist on . . . ing / insist that . . . promise (somebody) that . . . . / promise to . . .refuse to . . . (infinitive)say that . . . .IS SAID + THATsuggest + .... ingsuggest + that . . .warn (somebody) that . . . / warn (somebody) to (infinitive) or NOT + to + infinitiveTO REPORT QUESTIONS, YOU USE THE FOLLOWING FORMULA: