2TTO - Unit 7 - Reported speech

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 2

Reported speech

2TTO

A question for one of you:

"... what is your favourite sport?"
This is direct speech.

Now, ... report to us what he/she just said.

This answer is reported speech.

So, what is reported speech?

Reported speech is when we tell someone what another person said.

To do this, we can use: 

→ direct speech: 'I work in a bank,' said Daniel

 or 

→ indirect speech: Daniel said that he worked in a bank.

What is reported speech?

The most common reporting verbs: say + tell

• Jack said that he had been on a date with Jill.
• Jack *told me that he had been on a date with Jill.

- Just like say: add, admit, agree, announce

- * These all need a personal object (me/you/her/him/us/you/them): remind claim, complain, warn explain, promise

 

What do we change in reported speech?

1. We need to add a reporting verb (said, tell, etc).

2. We need to backshift our tenses by one. 

3. We need to change our pronouns. 

4. (If there is a time) We need to change the time.

Time in reported speech

Direct speech	Reported speech
now	then
today	that day, last night
tonight	that night, last night
yesterday	the day before, the previous day
last night	the night before, the previous night
last month	the month before, the previous month
next year	the following year

Tenses in reported speech

When using reported speech, we change the tense. It usually “jumps” one tense back (further into the past). 

For example:

The Present simple (She said, "I like him" ) changes to the Past simple when reporting (She said that she liked him.)

Exercise 1: Table reported speech (5 min)

• Go to Google Classroom and drag the correct example sentences, underneath the table, into the correct boxes. 
• Make sure that you check the tenses that are used.

Tim, "She works in an office."

Tim said _____________.

Emma, "I'm sitting on the chair."

Emma announced __________.

Reported speech - questions

Reported questions are not real questions so they do not need question marks.

- ‘Do you like rap music?’ ↠ She asked me if I liked rap music.

X She asked me if I liked rap music?

• When there is no question word (who, what, how, why, etc.), we use if or whether.

‘Can you do it?’ ↠ They asked me if I could do it.

‘Can you speak English?’ Marion asked the boy.

Marion asked ________________________.

‘Are you going to buy a car?’ Tom asked Willem.

Tom asked _________________________.

Exercise 2: Interview your neighbour (5-7 min)

• Think about a celebrity that you love. You are now that celebrity.
  
  
• You are going to interview your neighbour as their favourite celebrity.
  
  
• One person starts first. Ask the questions on the paper. Your neighbour, the celebrity, responds with their answer. Now, you report their answer correctly. You can write down their answer first and then report it.