Reported Speech (2)
Objectives of today’s lesson:
In this lesson, Learn English with Julia presents to you “Reported Speech (2)”, in order to:
- now the reported speech rules
- answer all your reported speech questions
- understand reported speech tenses
- complete some reported speech exercises with answers
Video Script:
Now let’s look at some introductory verbs!
When we’re transforming when we’re creating the reported speech.
We want to have a variety of verbs to choose from.
These are called introductory verbs or reporting verbs.
Now this in black here is the set of examples of direct speech.
So we’re going to create the indirect speech, the reported speech together by adding one of these verbs.
So let’s just say a woman said all this so just say “she” and we’ll add the verb and make those changes together and we’ll also add a conjunction.
So generally we’ll just add “that”
“she said that…”
However with “ask”, “inquire”, we can use conjunctions such as “if” or “whether”. But generally would just use the conjunction “that”.
Let’s do this!
So direct speech: example 1: to say, to tell
I’ll be there at ten.
She said that she would be there at ten.
She told me that she would be there at ten.
Examples number 2: ask / inquire
Question:
Will you be there?
She asked me if i would be there.
She inquired whether I would be there.
Example number 3: to add / to mention
so this is quite informal
it’s just the direct speech
“oh, and I’ll take the car”
She then added that she would take the car.
or:
She then mentioned that she would take the car.
Example 4: the verb “to explain” or “to answer”
“well, you see, I thought it would be a good idea”
She then explained that she thought
it would be a good idea.
or we can add the conjunction here also:
She explained that she thought that it would be a good idea.
So here there’s no conjunction.
It’s quite acceptable in the direct speech, when we’re speaking. However if you want to do a proper grammatical exercise it’s best to just add the conjunction.
Example 5: “to suggest” / “to offer”
I could pick you up at nine thirty.
She suggested that she picked me.
She suggested to pick me up at nine thirty.
This would be more correct.
She offered to pick me up at nine thirty.
This would also work.
Otherwise if we was just wanted to go back to basics:
She said that she could pick me up at nine thirty.
So we have many options there.
That’s the good thing with the reported speech.
There isn’t just one way of reporting someone’s words.
We’ve got lots of words to choose from.
Next example: “to admit” or “to deny”
I must say that i’m not much of a morning person.
She admitted that she was not much of a morning person.
So don’t forget those changes there.
The next example would be: “to remind” or “to insist”
Don’t forget your umbrella!
She reminded me to bring my umbrella.
She insisted that I didn’t forget my umbrella.
So you have lots of different options.
Example: “to promise” / “to declare”
The direct speech would be:
I’ll be there, I swear.
She swore that she would be there.
She declared that she would be there.
You choose.
Example: “to doubt” / “to wonder”
I don’t think it’s a good idea.
She wondered whether or not it was a good idea.
She doubted that it was a good idea.
Example: “to forbid” / “to order”
Don’t you dare leave without me!
So here we would say:
She forbade me to leave without her.
She ordered me not to leave without her.
She ordered me not to leave without her.
So don’t forget to use conjunctions when we’re writing, when we’re transcribing.
It’s best to write them down.
Don’t forget the many changes that occur.
Here we don’t have many questions.
We don’t have any actually. We have one question.
Don’t forget to remove the question mark.
In the indirect speech don’t forget to remove the question mark.
Let’s do a little recap.
Place and time expressions otherwise known as expressions of place and time.
I have written “other” here simply because there are some words that without a context seem misplaced.
So I have written “other”
But we are referring to place and time here.
So these words change when creating a reported speech.
So we’re going from a direct speech to indirect speech, integrating it to our own sentences or sentence,
hence becoming a reported speech.
So here are the words that change.
“here” >> “there”
“this” >> “that”
“these” >> “those”
now >> then
next >> the following
last month >> the previous month or the month before
You can choose. You have two options.
yesterday >> the day before
tomorrow >> the day after
What happens if I already have one of these words in my direct speech?
I will just simply use the same words in the direct speech as in the reported speech.
So for example someone says to you:
“Let’s meet there”
He suggested that we met there.
Reported speech.
So nothing too confusing there.
Just bear in mind that it’s like with verb tenses:
you can decide with the tense whether to do a backshift or not,
whether to change the tense, to create more distance.
The same thing goes with place and time.
If you are reporting something that was said to you a few minutes ago or a couple minutes before you can choose to just keep the same expression as the one used in the direct speech.
It’s up to you!
I think you’ve now seen everything that you need to familiarise yourself with.
Now please get some practice with the interactive exercises and read your PDFs.
Thanks for watching!
Grammar Quiz:
Keywords listed in English:
- quoted speech
- reported speech
- indirect speech
- direct speech
- backshift
- tenses review
- introductory verbs
- conjunctions
