We use a 'reporting verb' like 'say' or 'tell' (Click here for more about using 'say' and 'tell'). If this verb is in the present tense, it's
easy. We just put 'she says' and then the sentence:
·
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
|
Tense
|
Direct Speech
|
Reported Speech
|
|
present simple
|
“I like ice cream”
|
She said (that) she liked
ice cream.
|
|
present continuous
|
“I am living in London”
|
She said she was living in
London.
|
|
past simple
|
“I bought a car”
|
She said she had bought a
car OR She said she bought a car.
|
|
past continuous
|
“I was walking along the
street”
|
She said she had been
walking along the street.
|
|
present perfect
|
“I haven’t seen Julie”
|
She said she hadn’t seen
Julie.
|
|
past perfect*
|
“I had taken English lessons
before”
|
She said she had taken
English lessons before.
|
|
Will
|
“I’ll see you later”
|
She said she would see me
later.
|
|
would*
|
“I would help, but..”
|
She said she would help
but...
|
|
Can
|
“I can speak perfect
English”
|
She said she could speak
perfect English.
|
|
could*
|
“I could swim when I was
four”
|
She said she could swim when
she was four.
|
|
Shall
|
“I shall come later”
|
She said she would come
later.
|
|
should*
|
“I should call my mother”
|
She said she should call her
mother
|
|
might*
|
"I might be late"
|
She said she might be late
|
|
Must
|
"I must study at the
weekend"
|
She said she must study at
the weekend OR She said she had to study at the weekend
|
* doesn’t change
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
Okay, 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?"
How can we make the reported speech here?
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. Confused? Sorry, maybe this example will help:
So, to look again at the example:
·
direct speech: "where do you live?"
·
She asked me where I lived.
Do you see how I made it? The direct question is
in the present simple tense. We make a present simple question with 'do' or
'does' so I need to take that away. Then I need to change the verb to the past
simple.
How about another example:
How about another example:
·
direct speech: "where is Julie?"
·
She asked me where Julie was.
The direct question is the present simple of 'be'.
We make the question form of the present simple of be by inverting (changing
the position of)the subject and verb. So, we need to change them back before
putting the verb into the past simple.
Here are some more examples:
|
Direct Question
|
Reported Question
|
|
“Where is the Post Office,
please?”
|
She asked me where the Post
Office was.
|
|
“What are you doing?”
|
She asked me what I was
doing.
|
|
“Who was that fantastic
man?”
|
She asked me who that
fantastic man had been.
|
So much for 'wh' questions. But, what if you
need to report a 'yes / no' question? We don't have any question word to help
us. It's easy, instead use 'if':
·
direct speech: "Do you like chocolate?"
·
She asked me if I liked chocolate.
No problem? Here are a few more examples:
|
Direct Question
|
Reported Question
|
|
“Do you love me?”
|
He asked me if I loved him.
|
|
“Have you ever been to
Mexico?”
|
She asked me if I had ever
been to Mexico.
|
|
“Are you living here?”
|
She asked me if I was living
here.
|
Click here to practise reported questions.
Reported Requests
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
Here are a few more examples:
|
Direct Request
|
Reported Request
|
|
“Please help me”
|
She asked me to help her.
|
|
“Please don’t smoke”
|
She asked me not to smoke.
|
|
“Could you bring my book
tonight?”
|
She asked me to bring her
book that night.
|
|
“Could you pass the milk,
please?”
|
She asked me to pass the
milk.
|
|
“Would you mind coming early
tomorrow?”
|
She asked me to come early
the next day.
|
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 here!”
|
He told us not to smoke
there.
|
