Lesson 11 - Transportation
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This page: Learn how to use reported speech.

She said that she exercised every morning.
 

Reported Speech
Grammar

Reported speech is when we report what someone said instead of using a direct quote. When we use reported speech, we have to make some changes to the original sentence. Any words in the first person (such as I or we) must change to the third person (such as he, she, or they) and the verb changes according to the list below.

• Present → Past
• Past → Past Perfect
• Will → Would

Observe these changes in the verbs in the examples below.

• Original Quote - She said, "I exercise every morning."
• Reported Speech - She said she exercised every morning.
          - or -
  Reported Speech - She said that she exercised every morning.
  The word "that" before the reported information is optional.
•  
• Original Quote - He said, "I saw the movie."
• Reported Speech - He said (that) he had seen the movie.
•  
• Original Quote - They said, "We will study."
• Reported Speech - They said (that) they would study.

NOTE: Sometimes we leave the verb in the present tense if the information in the sentence is still true.

• Original Quote - She said, "I live in New York."
• Reported Speech - She said she lives in New York.

There are other words that you may need to change in reported speech due to the difference in time or distance since the original sentence was spoken.

• She said, "This is a book." → She said that was a book.
• He said, "Yesterday was my birthday." → He said the day before had been his birthday.
• They said, "Today is Friday." → They said that day was Friday.

 

Exercise - Reported Speech

Change the direct quotes to reported speech. For this exercise, write the sentences without the optional word "that". Make sure you use the correct capitalization and include the period or question mark at the end.

exercise
He said, "My name is Fred."

For this exercise, write the sentences without the optional word "that".
 

1. They said, "We speak English."

 

2. Helen said, "I came to class early."

 

3. Mario said, "I will work all day."

 

4. The children said, "We want to play."

 

5. She said, "I am a secretary."

 

6. Mr. Jones said, "I washed the car."

 

7. They said, "We didn't watch TV."

 

8. My mother said, "I'm cooking chicken for dinner."

 

9. He said, "I go to work on Fridays."

 

10. She said, "I won't read the article."

 

 

Questions in Reported Speech

When you report a question instead of a statement, in addition to changing the verb tense, you also change the question into a regular sentence. In other words, you change the verb-subject order to subject-verb order.

• She asked, "Where is he?"
  She asked where he was.
  In the example above, in addition to changing the present tense to the past tense (as is always done with reported speech), we also change the word order by moving the subject ("he") before the verb.
•  
• He asked her, "Where do you live?"
  He asked her where she lived.
•  
• Ronda asked, "Who did he talk to?"
  Ronda asked who he had talked to.
•  
• They asked, "What will we do?"
  They asked what they would do.

When reporting Yes/No questions, we add the word "if" before the reported information. Yes/No questions are questions that do not contain a question word (What, Where, When, Why, Who, How, etc.).

• Frank asked, "Does she speak English?"
  Frank asked if she spoke English.
•  
• Janet asked him, "Did they leave?"
  Janet asked him if they had left.

 

Exercise - Questions in Reported Speech

Change the questions into reported speech.

exercise
He asked, "What does she eat?"

 

1. They asked, "Where are they from?"

 

2. Helen asked, "Where does he live?"

 

3. Mark asked, "Will they come to the party?"

 

4. The children asked, "Can we watch TV?"

 

5. She asked, "Did they like the dessert?"

 

6. Mrs. Jones asked, "Where did they go?"

 

7. They asked, "How is she?"

 

8. My sister asked, "What's she cooking for dinner?"

 

9. He asked, "Does she believe in ghosts?"

 

10. She asked, "When does she think he will arrive?"

 

 

Instructions Identify the error in the following sentences and write the corrected version. example He are a teacher. → He is a teacher.  1. The suitcase is in the bagage claim.   2. He asked where was she from.   3. They asked if what time she will come.   4. He asked where the departure longe was.   5.  He asked where do they live.

 

Writing

Write three sentences in reported speech.

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Listening Exercise

 

Advanced English - Lesson 11 - Transportation
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