Reported Speech Basics: Backshift, Pronouns, and Direct/Reported Speech (Part 1)

Apuntes

GRAMMAR Reported speech (retelling) Reported speech puts the speaker's words or ideas into a sentence without quotation marks. When you report what someone said in the past, you usually shift back a verb tense from the tense the speaker used. These are some examples of verb shifts: ● simple present to simple past ● past to past perfect ● present perfect to past perfect Pronouns The person who is reporting what someone said is usually different from the person who made the original statement. As a result, pronouns in reported speech often change. Direct Speech Reported Speech "I am hungry. " Hongzia said she was hungry. "Where will you be?" Anastasia wanted to know where I would be. "Have you seen my glasses?" Aiden asked me if I had seen their glasses. Place and Time Changes in the situation between direct and reported speech can result in changes to words indicating place and time. Direct Speech Reported Speech "I don't like this book. " Jhon said he didn't like that book. "I'll see you tomorrow " “I saw the movie yesterday” Mike said she would see me the following day . Susan told me that she had seen the movie the previous day 24 Tense Changes (The Backshift Rule) The golden rule...