Monday, February 10, 2014

Reported Speech

Hey..guys after a long time I came with an English lesson. Let's learn...
to report (verb): to tell somebody what you have heard or seen
direct speech                                  reported speech
He said: "I love you."                         He said that he loved me.

If we want to say what somebody has said, we basically have two options:
1.            We can use the person's exact words in quotation marks "..." (direct speech)
2.            We can change the person's words into our own words   (reported speech)

Reported speech is not really difficult. It is more a matter of logic and common sense. You probably have the same concept in your own language, where you use your own words to say what somebody has said or written.
In this lesson we learn about reported speech, the structure that we use when we report what another person has said.
So now we will look at:
•           Reported Statements
•           Backshift
•           Time and Place
•           Reported Questions
•           Reported Requests
•           Reported Orders

Reported speech is called "indirect speech" by some people. Other people regard reported speech simply as one form of indirect speech. Other forms are, for example:
•              questions-within-questions: Can you tell me if they are expensive?
•              mental processes: He believes that politics is a dirty game.

Reported Statements

direct statement
reported statement
He said: "I am sick."
He said that he was sick.

Reported statements are one form of reported speech.
We usually introduce reported statements with "reporting verbs" such as "say" or "tell":
•              He said (that)...
•              He told me (that)...
When we report a statement, we can say "He said that..." or simply "He said...". Both are possible. "He said that..." is more formal.
When we use our own words to report speech, there are one or two things that we sometimes change:
•              pronouns may need to change to reflect a different perspective
•              tense sometimes has to go back one tense (eg, present becomes past) - this is called

backshift
                           
backshift



direct statement
He said,
"I
am
sick."
reported statement    
He said (that)
he
was
sick.


There are sometimes other things too that we may need to change, such as time or place. Look at these examples:
                                
backshift

time


direct statement
Jane said,
"I
was
sick
yesterday."
reported statement    
Jane said (that)
she
had been
sick
the day before.




backshift

place
direct statement
She said,
"It
is
hot in
here."
reported statement    
She said (that)
it
was
hot in
there.
We also sometimes need to think about the third person singular "s":
                       


 pronoun
3rd person singular

direct statement
Mary said,
"I
work
in London."
reported statement    
Mary said (that)
she
workS
in London
.
Notice that in the above example, we do not change the tense. Usually, with the present simple, if something is still true now - she still works in London - we don't need to change it.
Typical reporting verbs for statements: say, tell, mention, inform
•              He said that... OR He said...
•              He told me that... OR He told me...
•              He mentioned that...
•              He informed me that...
Now we will look in more detail at Backshift →
Backshift
direct
reported
He said: "I feel sad."
He said that he felt sad.
In simple terms, the structure of reported speech is:
reporting clause + conjuntion + reported clause
reporting clause
conjunction
reported clause
John said
(that)
he was hungry.
            original words:
"I am hungry."

We sometimes change the tense of the reported clause by moving it back one tense. For example, present simple goes back one tense to past simple. We call this change "backshift".
When do we use backshift?
We use backshift when it is logical to use backshift. So, for example, if John said "I am hungry" two minutes ago and I am now telling his sister, I might NOT use backshift (because John is still hungry):
•              John just said that he is hungry.
But if John said "I am hungry" yesterday, I would likely use backshift:
•           Yesterday, John said that he was hungry.
[We hope that John has eaten since yesterday ;-)

So we use backshift SOMETIMES but not always. And WHEN we use backshift, here's how it works with these common tenses and modals:
backshift
present simple
past simple
present continuous
past continuous
past simple


past perfect
present perfect
past continuous
past perfect continuous
can
could
may

might
will

would
shall

should

We NEVER use backshift when the original words are:
NO backshift
past perfect
could
might
would
should
Remember:
•              If a situation is still true, backshift is optional.
•              For a general truth there is no need for backshift.


This is to learn and sharpen your English.
If you got something from this note, please dont forget to comment below.....
ThankS!

Anu with PandA.

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