Reported Speech

Inter 6

He said that...
You want to tell somebody what Peter said. There
are two ways of doing this:
You can repeat Peters words (direct speech):
Peter said Im feeling ill.
Or you can use reported speech:
Peter said that he was feeling ill.

He said that...
Reporting verbs
Say, Tell, Ask are the most commom reporting
verbs, but there are many others you can use.
Tell and ask are always followed by an object
pronoun (me, him/her, etc.), but Say is not. The use
of that is optional.

E.g.: He told me (that) she moved to London.

He said (that) she moved to London.

He said that...
In general, this is how the verbs are changed from
direct to reported speech:

Am/Is: Was
Are: Were
Do/Does: Did
Have/Has: Had
Will: Would
Can: Could
Must: Had to
Would, could, might, should, ought to remain
the same.

You met Steve, an old friend,

yesterday. Here are some of
the things he said to you:
Im living in London.
My father isnt very
well.
Rachel and Mark
are getting
married next
month.
My sister has had a
baby.
I dont know what Joe
is doing

I havent seen Amy

recently.
Im not enjoying my job
very much
You can come and stay
at my place if youre
ever in London.
My car was stolen a few
days ago.

Ill tell Chris I saw you.

He asked...
In direct questions auxilary verbs are used.
Where do you live?

In reported questions, question

auxilary verbs arent used.

marks

and

He asked me where I lived.

Yes/No questions are reported using if or whether.

Do you like tea?
He asked if I liked tea.

You met Steve yesterday. Here

are some of the things he
asked you:
Where did you travel to
Where do you live?

on your last vacation?

Is your father fine?

How are Josh and
Mary?

Are you enjoying your

job?
Can you come to
London?

Can you speak French?

Have you gotten
married?
What is Kate doing?

Have you seen anyone from school recently?

Will you be busy

tomorrow?