REPORTED SPEECH STEP BY STEP

You have to use indirect speech / reported speech if you want to encase the quoted sentence into a sentence. In this case there are going to be several changes in the quoted sentence.

Changes:

A) Look at the table below which contains the adverbs of time and place that you have to change in reported speech. At the end of the list there are two verbs that can be changed.

Direct speech	Reported speech
this / these	è that / those
here	è there
now	è then, at that time
today	è that day
tonight	è that night
yesterday	è the day before, the previous day
tomorrow	è the next day, the following day
the day after tomorrow	è in two days’ time
the day before yesterday	è two days before
this (week)	è that (week)
last (month)	è the (month) before, the previous (month)
next (year)	è the next (year), the following (year)
two days ago	è two days before
ago	è before
come	è go
bring	è take

B) Change the pronouns: X says to Y SAYS. 

In reported speech you have to change I, me, my, mine, myself, / we, us, our, ours, ourselves if X isn’t I or we. 

YOU HAVE TO CHANGE I OR WE TO THE NAME OF THE PERSON.

Let’s see two examples:

In reported speech you have to change you, your, yours, yourself and yourselves if Y isn’t you. 

YOU HAVE TO CHANGE YOU TO that person's information.

Let’s see an example:

 MARY: "You are a teacher"

Mary says to Peter he is a teacher.

C) The order of the reported statements.

When you write the quoted sentence, you have to use the following order:

Subject + verb (modal verb if necessary + base verb) + Object + Complements (adverbs of place, time …)

Let’s see two examples (in the SAME TENSE):

• Yesterday I went to the shop.

Mary says to Peter she went to the shop the day before.

• Now I am drawing a flower into my notebook.

Mary says to Peter she is drawing a flower into her notebook then.

D) The order of the reported question.

Yes-no question:

whether /if + Subject + VERB (modal verb if necessary + verb) + Object + Complements (adverbs of place, time …)

Let’s see two examples:

• Do you like chocolate?

Mary asks Peter whether/if he likes chocolate.

• Have you ever been to Scotland?

Mary asks Peter whether/if he has ever been to Scotland.

Wh-question:

Wh-question pronoun + Subject + VERB (modal verb if necessary + verb) + Object + Complements (adverbs of place, time …)

Let’s see two examples:

• Where do you usually buy food?

Mary asks Peter where he usually buys food.

• Why have you bought this camera?

Mary asks Peter why he has bought that camera.

BE CAREFUL! You have to leave out THE AUXILIARY “do”, “does” and “did” if there isn’t negation in the sentence.

E) The order of the reported commands / suggestions / requests

You have to change the verb into TO+INFINITIVE. If it is a negative command you have to change it into NOT+ TO+INFINITIVE.

Let’s see two examples:

• Go to your room.

Mary tells the children to go to their room.

• Don’t watch late night films.

Mary tells the children not to watch late night films.

The most common used verb to introduce a reported command is ‘tell’. If there is ‘please’ in the direct command, you have

to use ‘ask’ and leave out ‘please.

e.g.: Please, don’t give up.

      He asks me not to give up.

If the person is mentioned in the direct command, you have to write it into the introduction.

e.g.: Children, drink your juice.

Mother tells the children to drink their juice.