reported speech other reporting verbs exercises pdf

We use say, not tell, to report greetings, congratulations and other wishes:Įveryone said good luck to me as I went into the interview. We use say, but not tell, to report questions: Not: He told he was moving to New Zealand. Not: He said me he was moving to New Zealand.

We don’t use an indirect object with say, but we always use an indirect object (underlined) with tell:

In indirect speech, say and tell are both common as reporting verbs. With tell, we always mention the person being spoken to we use an indirect object (underlined): Not: ‘Try to stay calm,’ she said us in a low voice. ‘Try to stay calm,’ she said to us in a low voice. It is a good exercise to revise the Reported Speech with different reporting verbs. ‘I’ll give you a ring tomorrow,’ she said. Ask your students to read the sentences and transform them using the verbs in bold. We don’t always mention the person being spoken to with say, but if we do mention them, we use a prepositional phrase with to ( to me, to Lorna): We can use say and tell to report statements in direct speech, but say is more common. She thought that she needed a new direction in life. I need a new direction in life, she thought. He wrote that he would love her forever, and then posted the note through Alice’s door. ‘I will love you forever,’ he wrote, and then posted the note through Alice’s door. In a similar way, we can report what people wrote or thought: Indirect speech focuses more on the content of what someone said rather than their exact words: In this example, I becomes she and the verb tense reflects the fact that time has passed since the words were spoken: didn’t realise becomes hadn’t realised. In indirect speech, the original speaker’s words are changed.īarbara said she hadn’t realised it was midnight. There are two main types of reported speech: direct speech and indirect speech.ĭirect speech repeats the exact words the person used, or how we remember their words:īarbara said, “I didn’t realise it was midnight.” Reported speech is how we represent the speech of other people or what we ourselves say.

Reported speech other reporting verbs exercises pdf