Liceo Andrés Bello A-94

Coordinación Técnico Pedagógica

Departamento de Inglés

Srta.: Ivonne Pérez F.

Curso: III ° medio

En
glish handout

Reported speech

Objetivos:

-Aplicar patrones gramaticales del estilo indirect.

- Identificar tiempos usados en estilo directo para convertirlos a estilo indirecto.

-Utilizar correctamente verbos say, offer, tell, order, suggest, ask, etc.

Habilidades:

-Transformar

-Aplicar

-Reconocer

Reported speech (or indirect speech)is used to say what other person(s) said
before, so when we change direct speech into reported speech, we usually go
one tense back and we need an appropriate verb to complete the sentence.

 In questions, we always use the verb “asked” when we change

sentences into reported speech:

i.e. Pablo and Sara: “Why are you so sad?”

They asked me why I was so sad.

 In other kind of sentences, we can use “said”, “told”, “offered”,

“suggested”, etc.

i.e. Tom: “ My wife is going to have a baby “

Tom told me his wife was going to have a baby.

 In commands, we use the verb “ordered”

i.e. Alice: “Clean your room!”

Alice ordered me to clean my room.

1) Using modal verbs:

Direct speech Reported speech

will would
I'll come and see you soon. He said he would come and see me soon.
can could
I can swim under water for two He said he could swim under water for two
minutes. minutes.
must had to
All tickets must be bought in He said that all tickets had to be bought in
advance. advance.
shall should
What shall we do about it? He asked what we should do about it.
may might
May I smoke? He asked if he might smoke.

2) Using commands:

Direct speech Reported speech

positive imperative tell + infinitive
Shut up! He told me to shut up.
tell + not + infinitive
negative imperative
He told me not to do it again.
Don't do that again!

ask + infinitive
imperatives as requests He asked me to give him some money.
Please give me some money.

3) Using other tenses:

Direct speech Reported speech

present simple past simple
I'm a teacher. He said he was a teacher
past continuous.
present continuous
He said he was having lunch with his
I'm having lunch with my parents.
parents.
past perfect simple
present perfect simple
He said he had been to France three
I have been to France three times.
times.
past perfect continuous
present perfect continuous
He said he had been working very
I have been working very hard.
hard.
past simple past perfect
I bought a new car. He said he had bought a new car.
past continuous past perfect continuous
It was raining earlier. He said it had been raining earlier.
past perfect past perfect
The play had started when I arrived. NO CHANGE POSSIBLE
past perfect continuous
past perfect continuous
I had already been living in London for
NO CHANGE POSSIBLE
five years.

In the case of past perfect simple, past perfect continuous and

past perfect, we use “HAD + the verb in participle (3rd column of
the irregular verbs list)”

4) Using questions:
When we have question words (who, why, how, when, etc) in direct
speech, we have to maintain the question word but we have to change
the order of the question:

Loretta: "How long have you lived in the United States?"

Loretta asked me how long I had lived in the

United States.

Questio person Verb in the

n word correct tense

When we have questions starting with any auxiliary verb (do, does, did,
will, etc.)

in direct speech, we have to use “if” before the person.

María: “Does your sister study?”

María asked me if my sister studied.

perso
Verb in the correct
n
tense

We make some changes in the adverbs of place and time in the

following cases:

now then
today that day
here there
this that
this week that week
the following day
tomorrow the next day
the day after
the following week
next week the next week
the week after
the previous day
yesterday
the day before
the previous week
last week
the week before
 previously
ago
before
2 weeks previously
2 weeks ago
2 weeks before
tonight that night
the previous Saturday
last Saturday
the Saturday before
the following Saturday
the next Saturday
next Saturday
the Saturday after
that Saturday

EXERCISES

Susan: “I went to the theatre last night.”

Peter: “I'm staying here until next week.”

Vin: "Harold has left already."

Cindy: "The students didn’t have problems with the computers."

Rose: "I can work on Saturday."

My father: "Go to your room."

Malinda: "Why did you come to the United States?"

Claudio: “Do you like to travel on vacation?"

Try the following page with interactive exercises:

http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/reported-
speech/exercises?10