Reported speech

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 Statements
• Ken: “I had a terrible row with Pauline a few
days ago and she has kicked me out.”

• Mike told Isobel that Mike had had a terrible

row with Pauline a few days before and she
had kicked him out.

What differences can you see in

these two sentences?

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 Statements
• We use reported speech when we are telling
someone what another person said or thought,
but do not use their exact words.
• When we report a statement, we use reported
verbs such as say, tell, explain, inform, state,
decide etc. often followed by that.

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Changes in reported speech

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 Tense change

• Present Simple Past Simple

• Present Continuous Past Continuous
• Present Perfect Past Perfect
• Past Simple Past Perfect
• Future Conditional

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A reported question is when we tell someone what
another person asked. To do this, we can use direct speech or indirect
speech.

direct speech: 'Do you like working in sales?' he asked.

indirect speech: He asked me if I liked working in sales.

In indirect speech, we change the question structure (e.g. Do you like) to a

statement structure (e.g. I like).

We also often make changes to the tenses and other words in the same way
as for reported statements (e.g. have done → had
done, today → that day).

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Yes/no questions
In yes/no questions, we use if or whether to report the
question. If is more common.

•'Are you going to the Helsinki conference?’, he .

-He asked me if I was going to the Helsinki conference.

•'Have you finished the project yet?’, she said.

-She asked us whether we had finished the project yet.

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Questions with a question word
In what, where, why, who, when or how questions, we use the
question word to report the question.

'What time does the train leave?’ he said

He asked me what time the train left.

'Where did he go?’ she said.

She asked where he went.

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 Questions

• Mike: “What are you going to do?”

• Mike asked Ken what he was going to do.
• Mike: “Are you all right, Ken?”
• Mike asked Ken if he was all right.

What differences can you see

in these sentences?

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Choose the correct answer to complete the sentence.

a)'Where will you stay?' I asked her …

b)if she would stay.
c)where would she stay.
d)where she would stay.

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Choose the correct answer to complete the sentence.

a)'Have you eaten ALL the cake?' She asked me …

b)if had I eaten all the cake.
c)when I'd eaten all the cake.
d)if I'd eaten all the cake.

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'How often do you use public transport?' She wanted to know …

a)how often I used public transport.

b)how I used often public transport.

c)how often did I use public transport.

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'Did you see the parade?' She asked us …

a)where we'd seen the parade.

b)whether we'd seen the parade.

c)if did we see the parade.

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'When had you last spoken?' I asked her ...

a)whether they had last spoken.

b)when they had last spoken.

c)when have they last spoken.

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'What were you doing at the time?' She asked me …

a)what I'd been doing at the time.

b)what was I doing at the time.

c)what had I been doing at the time.

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'Can she walk yet?' I wondered …

a)could she walk yet.

b)if can she walk yet.

c)if she could walk yet.

'What about having the party outside?' She

suggested …
a)about having the party outside.
b)having the party outside.
c)to have the party outside.
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 Commands and requests
• Ken: “Don’t spread it around, Mike.”
• Ken asked Mike not to spread it around.

• Mike advised Ken:”Make it up with Pauline!”

• Mike advised Ken to make it up with Pauline.

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 Commands and requests

• When we report requests, orders, advice or

warnings we use verbs such as advice, ask,
beg, tell, order, etc, followed by an infinitive.
• NB In negative requests/commands use NOT
before TO.

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Thanks for attention!

By: Hasanova Xumar

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