Reported Speech
Reported Speech
Hey, you guys! What’s up?
In this lesson we are learning how to report what someone else said! Yes! We are learning how to gossip!
Baixe essa aula em PDF: Lesson #14 – Reported Speech
Well, not really. But this notion is really important because a good part of our conversation topics is about what we talk with others, right?
So, whenever you want to tell someone what another person said, you will need to make some changes in the language.
Let’s see some examples and you will understand better.
There are two ways of reporting speech: directly and indirectly.
Direct Speech:
She said: “I don’t like this”
Quite simple, right? But, it is not normally used in spoken language. It’s rather for written language.
So that’s when the Indirect Speech comes in:
She said she didn’t like that.
WHAT? IT CHANGES? It does. It would be way too complicated to explain why it changes, so all you have to do is accept that it does and move on. In fact, in Portuguese it also changes. But we don’t normally follow all the rules.
| So here’s a table with all the changes you must make when reporting someone else’s speech indirectly. Direct | Indirect | Changes |
| Luana: “I don’t live here.” | Luana said she didn’t live there. | Simple Present – Simple Past
Here – There |
| He: “I didn’t do this!” | He said he hadn’t done that.
Or He said he didn’t do that. |
Simple Past – Past Perfect
(we don’t have to change when the order of the events are not mentioned or not important) This – That |
| The students: The teacher will not accept our assignment tomorrow. | The students told me that the teacher would not accept their assignment the following day. | Will – Would
Tomorrow – The following day. Yesterday becomes the day before. |
| He: I can’t help you. Sorry. | He said he couldn’t help me. Then he apologized. | Can – Could
Sorry: we explain with the verb apologize |
| My mom: Turn off the TV and don’t forget the lights! | My mom told me to turn off the TV and not to forget the lights | Imperative – to + verb
Negative Imperative – not to + verb |
| The girls: Will you take us to the mall? | The girls asked me if I would take them to the mall. | When reporting a question use the verb ask instead of say/tell
The structure goes to the affirmative (just like in embedded questions. Check it here: ) |
| I: What time are we leaving? | I asked them what time we were leaving. | Structure goes back to affirmative. |
Tá, e agora?
The changes were made so all the items in the indirect speech respect the time and place when the sentence was said.
Get some dialogues taken from TV series you like and report them!
It will be fun and you will practice!
If you have any doubts, let us know!
Cheers.
