9. THE REPORTED SPEECH 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

SAY OR TELL?

The verbs say and tell have similar meanings. They both mean "to communicate verbally with someone". But we often use them differently.

The simple way to think of say and tell is:

• You say something
• You tell someone something

You say something	You tell someone something
Ram said that he was tired.	Ram told Jane that he was tired.
Anthony says you have a new job.	Anthony tells me you have a new job.
Tara said: "I love you."	Tara told John that she loved him.

But, of course, it is not always so easy. Here are a few rules to help you.

Personal object
We usually follow tell with a personal object (the person that we are speaking to). We usually use say without a personal object:

• She told me that she loved John.
• She said that she loved John.
• He told everybody that he had to leave.
• He said that he had to leave.

Say "to someone"
With say, we sometimes use "to someone":

• He said to me that he was tired.
• Tara said to Ram that he had done very well.
• Anthony said to her, "I hope you come soon."

https://www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/cw-say-tell.htm

BASIC REPORTING VERBS: SAID OR TOLD?

 PLACE AND TIME ADVERBS: CHANGES

TO START, DO THIS QUIZ

THEN DO

 THIS EASY EXERCISE

 

YES/NO QUESTIONS:

W-QUESTIONS

To practise, click HERE

  

 COMMANDS

 

http://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/reported-speech.html

Reported Requests

There's more! What if someone asks you to do something (in a polite way)? For example:

• Direct speech: "Close the window, please"
• Or: "Could you close the window please?"
• Or: "Would you mind closing the window please?"

All of these requests mean the same thing, so we don't need to report every word when we tell another person about it. We simply use 'ask me + to + infinitive':

• Reported speech: She asked me to close the window.

Here are a few more examples: 

Direct Request	Reported Request
“Please help me”.	She asked me to help her.
“Please don't smoke”.	She asked me not to smoke.
“Could you bring my book tonight?”	She asked me to bring her book that night.
“Could you pass the milk, please?”	She asked me to pass the milk.
“Would you mind coming early tomorrow?”	She asked me to come early the next day.

To report a negative request, use 'not':

• Direct speech: "Please don't be late."
• Reported speech: She asked us not to be late.

Reported Orders

And finally, how about if someone doesn't ask so politely? We can call this an 'order' in English, when someone tells you very directly to do something. For example:

• Direct speech: "Sit down!"

In fact, we make this into reported speech in the same way as a request. We just use 'tell' instead of 'ask':

• Reported speech: She told me to sit down.

Direct Order	Reported Order
“Go to bed!”	He told the child to go to bed.
“Don't worry!”	He told her not to worry.
“Be on time!”	He told me to be on time.
“Don't smoke!”	He told us not to smoke.

• Click here for an exercise to practise reported requests and orders.

 

LINK 1

REPORTED MIXED SENTENCES