15 Culture and modern
society
R eported
speech
Reported or indirect speech is used to report the words of another person. For example:
'/
am an a rtis t.' = She said that she was an artist.
In order to report another person's words we
need to change the tense,
pronoun and tim e w ord s
and use a re p o rtin g ve rb such as
say or
tell.
Say and tell:
Say and
te ll are the most common reporting verbs.
Say never has an
indirect object and uses a
that clause.
Tell always has an indirect object and uses a variety of structures.
He said that he was interested in philosophy.
He told me that he was interested in philosophy.
(see g ra m m a r
reference fo r other tell structures)
Tense changes:
Some of the tenses of the original direct speech have to be changed
in reported speech are as
follow s:
Present sim ple: ‘I like opera.’
->
past simple: She said that she liked opera.
Past simple: 'We w ent to the theatre.'
->
past perfect: He said that thev had qone to the theatre.
Past perfect: ‘I had read the novel.’
past perfect: She said that she had read the novel.
Present modals [can, may, must, will):
‘IJ1 sta rt photography classes soon.’
->
past modals [could, might, had to, would):
He said that he w ould sta rt ohotoaraohv classes soon.
See page 122 in the G ram m ar reference fo r more inform ation.
