2. • Reported Speech is the report of one Speaker or
writer on the words said, written, or thought by
someone else If we report what another person
has said, we usually do not use the speaker’s
exact words (direct speech), but reported
(indirect) speech.
• Therefore, you need to learn how to transform
direct speech into reported speech. The
structure is a little different depending on
whether you want to transform a
statement, question or request.
4. Statements
When transforming statements, check whether you have to change:
•pronouns
•present tense verbs (3rd person singular)
•place and time expressions
•tenses (backshift)
The examples :
1. Direct Speech : “ I speak English “
2. Reported Speech ( no backshift ) : he says that he speaks english
3. Reported Speech ( backshift ) : he said that he spoke english
5. Questions
When transforming questions, check whether you have to
change:
• pronouns
• present tense verbs (3rd person singular)
• place and time expressions
• tenses (backshift)
Also note that you have to:
• transform the question into an indirect question
• use the interrogative or if / whether
6. The examples for Questions
direct speech
“Why don’t you speak
English?”
reported speech
He asked me why I didn’t
speak English.
direct speech
“Do you speak English?”
reported speech
He asked me whether / if I
spoke English.
with interrogative
without interrogative
7. REQUESTS
When transforming questions, check whether you have to change:
pronouns
place and time expressions
The Examples
direct speech
“Carol, speak English.“
reported speech
He told Carol to speak English.
8. Additional Information and
Exceptions
Apart from the above mentioned basic rules, there are
further aspects that you should keep in mind, for example:
• main clauses connected with and / but
• tense of the introductory clause
• reported speech for difficult tenses
• exceptions for backshift
• requests with must, should, ought to and let’s
9. Sorry about the boring slides and animations
Those are default contents of the PowerPoint
itself
