Dear students, if you want to deal with reported speech the key word is, I told you, CHECK, CHECK and always CHECK at the end.
These are the rules you have to follow and these are the ones you have to check
you have to change the verb of the reported sentence one step backwards into the past
There are some other changes that you have to check :
example: "volunteers cleaned the beach yesterday"said John
John said that volunteers had cleaned the beach the day before
YES/NO QUESTIONS:
You can only answer YES or NO to these kind of questions. You choose one or the other.
In English you show this possibility of election by using
IF or
WHETHER
When you report a questions it is no longer a question, I mean, it becomes an affirmative sentence, so the order of the elements is
subject-verb-complement
example:
Are they working now?" he asked
He asked if / whether they were working then
yes, the step backwards change in the verb also applies here, as well as the changing in the reference to the time of speaking. Always check this kind of elements before you finish the reporting.
WH-QUESTIONS:
This kind of question needs an specific answer, the one asked by the wh-element ---that is, the interrogative pronoun.
The step backwards in the verb tense and the expressions denoting time reference also apply here
and, as I told you before, the question is no more a question when you report it, so the order in the sentence is:
wh-element+ subject+verb+complement
example: "What can we do to help now" they asked
They asked what they could do to help then.
OFFER and REQUEST: meaning "ofrezco y pido, requiero de (tu ayuda)"
These sentences can appear in the interrogative and in the affirmative form. You can choose the way you report them, following the ways of the questions or this --easier--way:
TO + VERB (in the bare infinitive form, without 'to')
there is
no step backwards in these sentences, but ,again, you have to check the rest of the
time reference in the sentence.
example of request "please, give us a talk about solar energy tomorrow"she said
she asked me to give them a talk about solar energy the following day
example of offer: "I'll explain this to you next month"Greg said
Greg offered to explain that to me the following month
WARNING: notice the change of the pronouns!!!!
Reference must be taken into account, you have to change the pronouns according to the reference towards the speaker, the same as when you are asked your name. See:
"What's your name? My name is .....
ORDER:
You can receive a positive order or a negative one.
You usually are given orders by the
IMPERATIVE, but sometimes there are questions which are implicit orders:
(1) "Do the exercises!"
(2) "Can you do the exercises?" the teacher asked
both sentences are commands, orders. One explicit (1) and the other one implicit (2)
Again you can choose the way you report this sentence (2)-- following the ways or the questions or following this--easier--way:
when the order is affirmative :
TO +VERB (in the bare infinitive form, without 'to')
when the order is negative:
NOT +TO+VERB (in the bare infinitive form, without 'to')
example + order: "take your rubbish with you" he said
He told us to take our rubbish with us
example - order : "don't dump the waste here!" he said
He told us not to dump the waste there
SUGGESTION:
We usually suggest things to other people in the form of an
invitation to do something.
Sometimes the speaker includes him/herself in the invitation
In this case we find
let's in the sentence:
"Let's do a project about environmental problems to rise our English mark" Enma said
Enma is included in the invitation to do the project
"they should use the recycling bins" Susan said
Susan is not included in the invitation, probably she already uses the recycling bins herself.
When we deal with reported speech, we sometimes doubt if an advise is a suggestion or something deeper and we doubt on the ways of reporting the structure.
Ok, now let's go to the reported structure:
We can mainly use two structures:
VERB+ING
THAT + SUBJECT+ INFINITIVE VERB
(it's a non-personal structure, so the verb you find is an infinitive no matter the subject)
example: "let's do a project" Anne said
Anne suggested doing a project
Anne suggested that we do a project
Let's see another example for you to see clearly that the verb in the THAT structure is an infinitive:
"you should do the project alone" Anne told Mary
Anne suggested Mary that she do the project alone
notice "she do" and not "she does"
Anyway, you can not use the OFFER, REQUEST or ORDER structure in the SUGGESTION structure
❌Anne suggested to do a project
The most commonly used verbs are SAY and TELL, but there are other verbs used in the reported speech that add intention to what's said
these are the
REPORTING VERBS
They are linked to certain structures
STATEMENTS:
explain, announce, add, admit, promise, complain
QUESTIONS:
ask, want to know, wonder, enquire,
ORDERS:
order, warn, instruct, remmind
REQUESTS: ask, beg
OFFERS:offer
SUGGESTIONS:
suggest, advice, recommend,
