1) Reported speech is used to tell someone what another person has previously said. It involves changing the tense and other elements of direct speech, such as pronouns and place/time references. 2) When changing direct to reported speech, verbs move back one tense (e.g. present to past) and elements like pronouns, places, times are changed accordingly. Questions and orders also have specific rules for changing to reported speech. 3) Examples are provided to demonstrate how to correctly change different types of sentences from direct to reported speech, including statements, questions, and orders. The document aims to teach the rules and mechanics

1. REPORTED SPEECH
IN ENGLISH
By
Raquel Parada Núñez

2.  What’s REPORTED SPEECH?
 Well, REPORTED SPEECH is a way to tell
someone what other person has said previously.
 How do we express it?
 Pay attention to the explanation

3.  Let’s consider the following sentence in Spanish:
 Daniel: “Trabajo en correos”
 If you had to say that to another person, how would
you say it?
 “Daniel dijo que trabajaba en correos”

4.  So… what have we done?
 Very simple…
 We have moved one step backwards in time.

5.  Imagine the following line represents the time…
Past Perfect Past Simple Present Present
Perfect
And NOTICE how tenses change in REPORTED SPEECH…

6. Exercise 1:
 Try to do it yourself, change the following
sentences from DIRECT TO REPORTED
SPEECH:
1. Frank: ‘I don’t like fish’
2. My mother: ‘I have bought some fruit’
3. Sarah: ‘I went to London twice’
4. Graham: ‘I had been to Paris before’

7. Check your answers:
1. Frank said he didn’t like fish.
2. My mother said she had bought some fruit.
3. Sarah said she had gone to London twice.
4. Graham said he had been to Paris before.
Have you got them right?

8.  But, not only do the verbs change.
 What other elements do you think
will change?
 Think carefully!!

9.  Personal Pronouns.
 Demonstratives
 Time references
 Place references
Notice the following chart...

10. DIRECT SPEECH REPORTED SPEECH
Present Simple Past Simple
Present Continuous Past Continuous
Present Perfect Past Perfect
Past Simple Past Perfect
Past Perfect Past Perfect
Future (will) Condicional (would)

11. DIRECT SPEECH REPORTED SPEECH
Now Then
Today That day
Tomorrow The following day/the day
after
Yesterday The day before/the previous
day
Last week, year… The previous week,year…/the
week, year… before
Next week,year… The following week, year…
This That
Here There
Ago Before

12. A bit of practice:
1. Tom: ‘I saw this film yesterday’
2. The children: ‘We have eaten
vegetables three times last week’
3. My grandmother: ‘I will give you 10€
tomorrow!’
4. Richard: ‘I’m eating now!’

13.  Up to now, we have seen how we report
affirmative sentences, but…what happens
with interrogative sentences and orders?

14.  Let’s consider the following sentences:
 Mike: Have you seen my keys?
 Could you report this sentence?
 Try!!

15.  Answer:
 Mike asked me if I had seen his keys.
 What do you notice here?
 Look at the sentence carefully!!

16.  The reporting verb has changed.
 Since it is a yes-no question, we have to introduce the
connector IF.
 We are reporting Mike’s words, so we are NOT making
a question ourselves, consequently the question mark
disappears.

17.  Another one:
 Stephanie: ‘Where do you live?
 And now?....

18.  Stephanie asked me where I lived.
In this case…
 We report the sentence using the same
question word: where, when, what…
 Notice something: now we order the sentence
because it is no longer interrogative.

19. ORDERS:
 With orders we just repeat the
same verb preceded by TO. If it is
negative we add NOT before TO +
VERB.
 James: ‘Sit down and don’t shout!’
 James ordered us TO sit down and NOT
TO shout.

20. Let’s do some practise:
 He said: ‘Get out of may way!’
 Tom asked: ‘Did you find an old wallet
yesterday?’
 Frank and Sam: ‘We will see you
tomorrow’
 She: ‘When does it start?’
 My father: ‘I’m not going to help you,
you will have to do it by yourself’

21. Check your answers:
 He ordered him to get out of his way.
 Tom asked if I had seen an old wallet the
day before.
 Frank and Sam said they would see us/me
the following day.
 She asked when it started.
 My father said he was not going to help
me, I would have to do it by myself.

22. 
I hope now you can tell what another
person has said….
But…. don’t lie!!