Direct vs Reported Speech - Tutorial

Direct Speech vs Reported Speech

Direct speech

¡ Direct speech repeats or quotes, WORD FOR WORD.

¡ We need to place these words between inverted commas (“……….”).

¡ We may be reporting what is being said NOW or telling someone later about the PREVIOUS conversation.

Reported speech

¡ Is usually used to indicate something that was said in the past. Hence, we need to change the tense of the words spoken.

¡ Use reporting verbs such as: say, tell, ask.

¡ Inverted commas ARE NOT USED.

Converting direct speech to reported speech

Things to consider

1. Pronoun (unless you are talking about yourself)
2. Change of place reference
3. Change of time reference
4. Tense
5. The use of the reporting verbs

Change in pronoun

¡ In general, personal pronouns are changed to the third person singular or plural, except when speakers report their own words:

¡ I/ me/ my/ mine

¡ You/your/ yours

¡ He/him/her/hers

¡ We/ us/our/ours

Change in time and place reference

Direct Speech	Indirect/ Reported Speech
Today	that day
Yesterday	the day before
The day before yesterday	2 days before
Tomorrow	the next/ following day
The day after tomorrow	in 2 days’ time/ 2 days later
Next week/month/ year	The following week/ month/year
Last week/month/year	The previous week/month/year
Ago	Before
This (for time)	That
This/ that (adjectives)	the

Tense change (backshift)

ORIGINAL TENSES	NEW TENSES IN REPORTED SPEECH
Simple Present She said, "It's cold."	Past Simple She said it was cold.
Present continuous She said, "I'm teaching English online."	Past continuous She said she was teaching English online.
Present Perfect She said, "I've been on the web since 1999."	Past Perfect She said she had been on the web since 1999.
Present Perfect Continuous She said, "I've been teaching English for seven years."	Past Perfect Continuous She said she had been teaching English for seven years.
Past simple She said, "I taught online yesterday."	Past perfect She said she had taught online the day before.
Past continuous She said, "I was teaching earlier."	Past perfect continuous She said she had been teaching earlier.
Past perfect She said, "The lesson had already started when he arrived."	Past perfect NO CHANGE - She said the lesson had already started when he arrived.
Past perfect continuous She said, "I'd already been teaching for five minutes."	Past perfect continuous NO CHANGE - She said she'd already been teaching for five minutes.

Selecting your reporting verb

Each sentence is uttered with a specific function.

For example :

Pearl (to Alexa): Stop disturbing Max or I will beat you.

Reported speech : Pearl warned Alexa to stop disturbing Max or she would beat her.

Hopes, intentions, promises

¡ We need to use an appropriate reporting verb (ex: hope, threaten, guarantee, swear) followed by a THAT clause or a TO-infinitive

Orders

¡ When we want to report an order or request, we can use verbs like ‘tell or command, order, warn, ask, advise, invite, beg, teach, forbid’ with a TO clause.

Requests

¡ Request for objects are reported by using this pattern: ask for+ object

Suggestions

¡ Verbs to suggest (suggest, insist, recommend, demand, request propose) are usually reported with a that-clause and that/ should are optional.

Questions

¡ Normal word order is used in reported question, that is the subject comes before the verb, and it is not necessary to use do or did.

¡ Ex: Where does Satoru live?

¡ She asked him where Satoru lived

¡ This type of question is reported by using “ask+ if/whether” clause.

¡ Ex: Do you speak Japanese?

¡ He asked me if I spoke Japanese.

¡ Ex: Is it raining?

¡ He asked me if it was raining.

¡ This type of question is reported by using “ask+ question word+ clause” and it requires the normal word order with change in tenses.

¡ Ex: “What is your name?” Alan asked the young girl.

¡ Alan asked what her name was.

¡ Ex: “What time does the plane arrive?” Satoru asked.

¡ Satoru asked what time the plane arrived

Exceptions

¡ You do not need to change the tense if the reporting verb is in the present or if the original statement was about something that is still true.

¡ Ex: The students lamented that English is a difficult language to master.

¡ Modal verbs do not change in reported speech, might, could, would, should, ought to.

¡ Ex: My mother said, “it could be difficult to find a new apartment in this area.”

¡ Ex: My mother said that it could be difficult to find a new apartment in that area.

Apart from the above mentioned basic rules,

there are further aspects that you should keep

in mind, for example:

¡ main clauses connected with and / but

¡ tense of the introductory clause

¡ reported speech for difficult tenses

¡ exceptions for backshift

¡ requests with must, should, ought to and let’s

Verb Tense Consistency - Tutorial

Verb tense consistency

Rules in verb tense consistency

Present tense

1. The present tense may be followed by another present tense
2. The present tense may be followed by a past tense.
3. The present tense may be followed by the present perfect,
4. The present can be used with the future tense.
5. The present tense should NOT be used with the past perfect unless a suitable tense follows the past perfect.

Past tense

1. The simple past can be followed by another simple past.
2. The simple past may be used with the past progressive.
3. The simple past can be used with the future.
4. The simple past should NOT be used with the present perfect (although in informal speech, it is sometimes used)

Examples

Present tense

1. Plants do not just grow to beautify the earth but are also vital to all life on earth because they give us oxygen. (all three ideas are understood to be facts)
2. Scientists believe that the first river terrapins were brought from Indonesia by the first Sultan of Perak (the scientist will continue to believe, but the actual event of bringing in the river terrapins is a completed action)
3. The community values pearl oysters highly and has cultivated such oysters for more than a thousand years because of the pearls that develop in them. (the society will continue to value pearl oysters, and the action of cultivating the oysters started in the past and will continue on)
4. Scientists predict that social networking sites will become a powerful medium of communication by the end of this decade.
5. Alexander insists that he had seen the other car. (WRONG) – there should be another event after “he had seen the other car”. (the past perfect can only be used when there are two events in the past) CORRECTION : Alexander insisted that he had seen the other car.

Past tense

1. The need to organize a clean-up campaign became more urgent after about one-third of the residents of Kampung Congkak came down with dengue. (both are completed events)
2. The police were curious to know if Alex was speeding at the time of the horrific accident. (both are completed events)
3. The suppliers told Mr. Tan that the new shipment of Blackberries will arrive the week after next. (the action of telling is completed, but the arrival has yet to happen)
4. She reported that she has been running nine miles every morning. (informal speech therefore acceptable)
1. Other options

i. She reports that she runs nine miles every morning.

ii. She reported that she had been running nine miles every morning.

Summary of verb tense consistency

Common combinations

Present tense

• Simple present + simple present
• Simple present + simple past
• Simple present + simple future
• Simple present + present perfect

Past tense

• Past simple + past simple
• Past simple + past continuous
• Past simple + future simple

Modal Verbs - Tutorial

Modal Verbs

Rules :

1. Modal verbs cannot be inflected. They do not have –ing or –ed endings.
1. Example :

i. She should walk to school. (√)

ii. She should walking to school. (×)

iii. She should walked to school. (×)

2. Modal verbs can be made negative by adding a “not” or “n’t”.
1. Example :

i. She might not make it on time.

ii. Eliza shouldn’t have answered the door.

iii. Jeremy wouldn’t agree to your suggestion.

3. Many modal verbs cannot be used in the past tense or future tense.
1. Example :

i. She woulded attend classes. (×)

ii. Alex will can graduate from the training programme. (×)

4. Modal verbs are always followed by the basic form of the main verb or by be and have.
1. Example :

i. Blair will be in Paris this summer.

ii. Daniel might attend summer school.

iii. Nikita could take down the whole division

5. In question form, the modal is normally at the beginning of the sentence, followed by the subject and then by the basic form of the verb.
1. Example :

i. May I go to the library now?

ii. Should Alexis take Human Development this semester?

Common modal verbs and their meanings

Modal	Meaning
Can (present) Could (past) * will be able to (future)	Ability (Is able to)
Can/ could	Polite request
Can/ could	Offer
Can/ could	Possibility
Can (present) Could (past)	Permission
Could	Suggestion

Modal	Meaning
May/ might	Request (British form)
May	Give or refuse permission
May/ might	Possibility
Might	Suggestion

Modal	Meaning
Must	Certainty
Must	Obligation
Must	Strong recommendation

Modal	Meaning
Should/ ought to	Recommendation/ advice
Should be/ ought to be	Expectation
Shouldn’t	Suggestion
Should (not) have/ ought (not) to have	Regret
Should	Obligation

Modal	Meaning
Will/ shall	Future action
Will	Determination
Will	Make a promise

Modal	Meaning
Would (past)	Promise made
	Past habits
Would	Acceptance
	Polite request
	Promise made
	Conditional