Unit 5

Unit 5

Reported Speech

We use reported speech when we report someones word we can do in two ways. We ca use direct speech with quotation marks  for example (" I work in a bank") or we can use reported speech ( He said he worked in a bank)

In reported speech the tenses , word order and pronouns may be different from those in the originals sentences.

How do we know when use the different times?

Practice

Reporting Questions

When we report what people said , we usually change the tense of the verbs to reflect that we are reporting - not giving direct speech . This pattern is followed when we report questions and there are also important changes between direct questions and reported questions 

YES / NO QUESTIONS

When we report yes/no questions we use IF / WHETHER

Examples

Direct question: Did you enjoy the party

Reported question: He asked me if I'd enjoyed the party

 ( These tense of the verb changes as it does in reported speech but we don't use auxiliary verbs. The word order is the same ass in affirmative sentences.

 

Questions with a question word 

When there is a question word  ( what, where, why, when, how...) we use that question word in the reported question but there is no auxiliary verb and the word order  is like an affirmative sentence. 

Example:

Direct Question: Who did you see?

Reported question: Who asked me who I'd seen 

Practice