Reported Speech is how we represent the speech of
other people or what we ourselves
say. There are two main types of reported speech: Direct
Speech and Indirect Speech
(also called Reported Speech).
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Direct Speech repeats the exact words the person
used, or how we remember their
words.
We use inverted commas (“ ”) in Direct Speech.
Example: “I am going to meet Mrs Ismayilova tomorrow,” said Seymur. Indirect Speech (Reported Speech) focuses more on the content of what someone said rather than their exact words. We don’t use inverted commas (“ ”) in Indirect Speech. Example: Seymur said that he was going to meet Mrs Ismayilova. ***
Indirect Speech (Reported Speech) can be in the form
of
statements, questions and
commands/requests/suggestions.
Indirect statements are introduced with say or tell. We can use that to introduce a reported clause. But it can be omitted as well. Example: Kamila said that she would take her driving test the following week./ Kamila said she would take her driving test the following week. |
We don’t say
Example: Kevin
Example: Kevin
Example: Kevin
|
We say
say to somebody
Example: Kevin said to me that he wouldn’t come to the party.
tell somebody
Example: Kevin told me that he wouldn’t come to the party.
say + (that) + reported clause
Example: Kevin said (that) he wouldn’t come to the party.
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In Indirect Speech, tense forms, pronouns and adverbs change. See the tables on
Page 185 for the changes in Indirect Speech.
Tense forms do not change when
Past Simple remains unchanged when the reported sentence contains a time clause.
Example: “A big shark attacked me while I was surfing,” said Ahmad. Ahmad said that
a big shark attacked him while he was surfing.
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