REPORTED SPEECH

Dear students,

today we are going to study reported speech, that is, indirect speech.

There are some tense changes:

PRESENT SIMPLE I am a teacher🙋	PAST SIMPLE He said that he was a teacher
PRESENT CONTINUOUS They are studying the reported speech	PAST CONTINUOUS They said that they were studying the reported speech📚
PAST SIMPLE We ate octopus in Galicia	PAST PERFECT They said that they had eaten octopus in Galicia🐙
PAST CONTINUOUS I was listening to music	PAST PERFECT CONTINUOUS He said that he had been listening to music🙉
PRESENT PERFECT I haven’t read Harry Potter	PAST PERFECT He said that he hadn’t read Harry Potter😲
PRESENT PERFECT CONTINUOUS We have been doing our homework	PAST PERFECT CONTINUOUS They said that they had been doing their homework✌
PAST PERFECT I had gone there before	PAST PERFECT He said he had gone there before🚀
PAST PERFECT CONTINUOUS We had been practising a lot	PAST PERFECT CONTINUOUS They said that they had been practising a lot😊
WILL It will rain	WOULD He said that it would rain🌂
CAN I can speak English	COULD He said that he could speak English💗
MAY He may come soon	MIGHT He said that he might come soon✈

There are also some changes in time and place expressions:

NOW	THEN
TODAY	THAT DAY
TOMORROW	THE FOLLOWING DAY THE NEXT DAY
YESTERDAY	THE PREVIOUS DAY THE DAY BEFORE
NEXT WEEK/MONTH/ YEAR	THE FOLLOWING WEEK/MONTH/ YEAR THE NEXT WEEK/MONTH/ YEAR
LAST WEEK/MONTH/ YEAR	THE PREVIOUS WEEK/MONTH/ YEAR THE WEEK/MONTH/ YEAR BEFORE
THIS /THESE	THAT/ THOSE
HERE	THERE

For requests and commands (peticiones y órdenes) we use the reporting verbs "tell/order" (for orders: ordenar, mandar) or "ask" (for requests: pedir) and then we use the infinitive. So the structure would be:

Someone + ask/tell/order+ someone + (not) to do* + something

*When we have a negative sentence, we use NOT before the infinitive.

For example:

Do your homework! (order) → The teacher told / ordered me to do my homework.

Please, don't shout at me (request) → She asked me not to shout at her.


 In QUESTIONS we use the reporting verb "ask" (preguntar). There are two types of questions:

• Yes/no questions: Can you play the piano?
• Wh- questions: Where do you study?

For yes/no questions we use this structure:

Someone + ask + (someone) + if + subject + verb + complements

He asked (me) if I could play the piano.

For Wh- questions we use this structure:

Someone + ask + (someone) + wh- + subject + verb + complements

He asked (me) where I studied.

Finally, don't forget that you can also use other reporting verbs with different structures (last slide on the Prezi).

Here you have the link to the PREZI

And the video with explanations in Spanish.

Last but not least, here you have some exercises to practise. I hope you find them useful.

Exercise 1
Exercise 2: Commands (online)
Exercise 3: Questions (online)
Web page with several exercises (online)
Reporting verbs 1
Reporting verbs 2