- •Parts of speech
- •The noun General Characteristic
- •The Grammatical Category of Number
- •The Pronunciation
- •The Spelling/Formation
- •Nouns Used only in the Singular
- •Nouns Used only in the Plural
- •Collective nouns
- •The Category of Case
- •The Formation
- •The Pronunciation
- •V. Articles with Nouns in the Possessive Case
- •The adjective General Characteristic
- •Degrees of Comparison
- •Formation
- •Comparative Constructions
- •The adverb General Characteristic
- •Formation
- •II. Degrees of Comparison
- •Some, any, no, none
- •(A) few, (a) little
- •Much, many, a lot of, lots of, plenty of, etc.
- •The verb General Characteristic
- •Present tenses
- •The Present Indefinite (Simple)
- •I. The Formation:
- •II. Spelling of the third person singular forms.
- •III. The Meaning:
- •IV. The Use of the Present Indefinite
- •The Present Indefinite is used to denote future actions
- •The Present Indefinite is used to denote past actions:
- •The Present Continuous (Progressive)
- •I. The Formation.
- •II. Spelling of the –ing forms.
- •III. The Use of Present Continuous.
- •IV. Verbs Not Used in the Continuous Forms.
- •V. The Present Continuous vs. The Present Indefinite.
- •The Present Perfect
- •I. The Formation
- •III. Patterns
- •IV. Time Indication
- •V. The Present Perfect vs. The Past Indefinite
- •VI. The Past Indefinite and the Present Perfect as Variants
- •The Present Perfect Continuous
- •I. The Formation
- •II. The Use of the Present Perfect Continuous
- •III. The Present Perfect Continuous vs. The Present Perfect
- •IV. The Present Perfect Continuous and the Present Perfect as Variants
- •Past tenses
- •The Past Indefinite Tense
- •I. The Formation
- •The Past Continuous Tense
- •I. The Formation
- •III. The Past Continuous vs. The Past Indefinite
- •The Past Perfect Tense
- •I. The Formation
- •III. The Past Perfect vs. The Past Indefinite
- •The Past Perfect Continuous
- •I. The Formation
- •III. The Past Perfect Inclusive vs. The Past Perfect Continuous Inclusive
- •Future tenses
- •The Future Indefinite Tense
- •I. The Formation
- •III. ''Will'' as a modal verb
- •IV. ''Shall'' as a modal verb
- •The Future Continuous Tense
- •I. The Formation
- •The Future Perfect Tense
- •I. The Formation
- •The Future Perfect Continuous Tense
- •I. The Formation
- •Around the future
- •Reported speech
- •I. Statements
- •II. General Questions
- •III. Special Questions
- •IV. Short Answers
- •V. Commands and Requests
- •VI. Suggestions
- •VII. Advice
- •VIII. Offers
- •IX. Responses
- •Sequence of tenses
- •Modal Verbs in Indirect Speech
- •Question tags
- •I. Formation.
- •II. Agreeing and disagreeing with question tags
- •III. Echo tags
- •The imperative mood
- •I. Formation
- •II. Imperatives with 'let'
Reported speech
When reporting somebody's direct speech one is confronted by a number of difficulties: the word order, the sequence of tenses, the use of pronouns and adverbs.
Study the following patterns to report sentences of different communicative types.
I. Statements
Direct Speech |
Indirect Speech |
Tom says: “I am awfully tired.” |
Tom says that he is awfully tired |
Tom says to Bob: “I am awfully tired.” |
Tom says to Bob that he is awfully tired Tom tells Bob that he is awfully tired |
Note 1: The verb say introduces a statement when the person addressed is not indicated. The verb say + to and the verb tell are used when the person addressed is indicated:
say that …
say to somebody that …
tell somebody that …
II. General Questions
Direct Speech |
Indirect Speech |
|
Tom: “Are you busy tonight, Mary?” |
Tom asks Tom wonders Tom wants to know Tom is interested to know Tom is curious Tom inquires |
if/whether Mary is busy tonight. |
Tom: “Are you leaving next week?” |
if/whether Mary is leaving next week. |
|
Tom: “Does it often rain in your part of the country in spring?” |
if/whether it often rains in their part of the country in spring |
|
Tom: “Is there a swimming pool on the liner?” |
if/whether there is a swimming-pool on the liner. |
|
Note 2: Indirect general questions are introduced by the conjunctions if and whether. The word order in indirect general questions is not inverted.
III. Special Questions
Direct Speech |
Indirect Speech |
|
Tom asks the boys: “Who wants to get a part in the school play?” |
Tom asks Tom wonders Tom wants to know Tom is interested to know Tom is curious Tom inquires
|
which of the boys wants to get a part in the school play. |
Tom asks John: “Why are you late? |
why John is late. |
|
Tom asks John: “What book are you reading?” |
what book John is reading. |
|
Tom asks: “How many students are there in the group?” |
how many students there are in the group. |
|
Tom asks John: “What camera have you got?” |
what camera John has got. |
|
Tom asks John: “Where did you buy the suit?” |
where he bought the suit. |
|
Note 3: Word order in indirect questions is not inverted. In questions to the predicative the direct order of words is not always strictly observed. Inset phrases such as What is the time? What is the matter? What is the news? the word order is not changed in indirect speech. The person the questions is addressed is not necessarily indicated.