REPORTED SPEECH

Definition
We use this form of the language to talk
about someone else has said in the past

Its ok

He said it was
ok
How to report?
The key word to determinate the tense we will use are the verbs
say and tell

Direct speech: I like ice Direct speech: I like ice

cream. cream.
Reported speech: Reported speech:
Shesays(that) shelikesice Shesaid(that) shelikedice
cream. cream.
Present Past

However, the most common tense to use in Reported Speech is the

past tense. In those cases, the verb is reported in a tense prior.
Consider how these tenses that
dont change are already in their
maximum past
Strucutre
The witness declared that the accused was at the scene of
crime at that time
Subject Verb in
Any
That is the tense
A verb Complement
sometim reported prior of
Person that
es not is what it
from implies
necessar referring expresse
which conver
y. But is to s
we sation,
mandato
report such
ry
as
dependin
say,
g on the
tell,
verb
ask
Reported Questions WH Questions

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

Direct speech: "Where do you Direct speech: "where is Julie?"

live?" Reported speech: She asked me
Reported speech: She asked me where Julie was.
where I lived.
Action Verb Verb To be

Notice the position of the verb to be

Reported Questions Y/N Questions

Since we don't have any question words to help us. Instead, we

use'if, as if it was a conditional
Reported Requests
All 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 Orders
Unlike requests, orders are more direct and less polite. In this
case we use the verb told since we give emphasis on the
message