Learn English Grammar: Reported Speech

Hi, I'm Rebecca, and today we're going to be talking about something that's known as

"reported speech" in grammar.

We use "reported speech" when we talk about something that someone else has said.

When you describe what someone else told you, what someone else actually said, you use "reported

speech".

Now, the way we do this is we take the original sentence, and we usually change it into one

tense back.

What do I mean by that?

Let's look at the first example, which I've written for you on the board, using the verb

"to be", okay?

So, in the original sentence, we say, "You're smart", or "Somebody said to me, 'You're smart'".

If I was describing that, I would say, "He said you were smart."

Not "He said you are smart", "He said you were smart".

That's just because we have to use "reported speech" when we describe what somebody else

has said.

It doesn't mean that you're not smart anymore, you're still smart, it just means that you

are describing something which somebody told you in the past, okay?

So, let's look at the next one, "He's a teacher."

That's the original sentence.

When you want to change it to "reported speech", you say, "He told me he was a teacher."

"He told me he was a teacher."

You see that change from "is" to "was".

Let's look at the next one, "She's beautiful."

That's the original sentence.

"He told me she was beautiful."

"He told me she was beautiful."

Right?

So, again, we're changing the "she is" to "she was".

Let's look at the next one, "It is broken."

"He told me it was broken."

Right?

"It is" becomes "it was".

Last one here, "They are tired."

"They told", sorry, "He told me they were tired."

Right?

"They are" becomes "they were".

That's the first set of examples that I've got for you with the verb "to be".

When I come back in a moment, I'm going to give you some more examples using other basic

tenses such as present simple, past simple, and so on.

See you in just a moment.

Okay.

So, now let's continue with some other tenses and see how they work when we report them

in reported speech.

Okay?

Let's look at these examples, "They live in Russia."

If this is your original sentence in present simple, "They live in Russia."

In reported speech, we would say, "He told me they lived in Russia."

It becomes past simple.

Present simple becomes past simple, "He told me they lived in Russia."

Let's look at the next one, "They are living in Russia."

Right now, "They are living in Russia" is present continuous.

When we put it into reported speech, we say, "He told me they were living in Russia."

"Are living" becomes "were living".

Next sentence, "They lived in Russia."

That's the original sentence, past simple.

When we change it into reported speech, we say, "He told me they had lived in Russia."

It becomes past perfect.

"They were living in Russia."

"They were living in Russia" is past continuous, so if we change it to reported speech, we'll

say, "He told me they had been living in Russia," which becomes past perfect continuous.

For those of you who know your tenses, to do reported speech, we really do need to be

aware of the tenses, okay, and the grammatical forms.

It really does come in here, alright?

And the last one, which is in the future, at the moment, "They will live in Russia."

That's in the future, so we change it to, "He told me they would live in Russia."

This is an example, using five different tenses, of how you can convert sentences from the

way you originally hear them into reported speech, alright?

Now, let's go to a little quiz to see how well you've understood this, okay?

Here's the first example, "I like ice cream."

I say to you, "I like ice cream."

So you tell someone else, "Rebecca said that," fill in the blank, "Rebecca said that she

liked ice cream," okay?

If you said that, you were right.

So we took the present simple, "I like ice cream," change it into past.

Let's take another example, "You ate dinner."

"You ate dinner," is your original sentence that somebody said.

If you want to report that, or describe that to someone else, what would you say?

"He said that you had eaten dinner."

"He said that you had eaten dinner."

You take the past tense, "You ate dinner," and put it into past perfect, "You had eaten

dinner."

Let's take another one.

"She has broken up with her boyfriend."

"She has broken up with her boyfriend," right now, is in the present perfect, and we can

change it to become, "She told me she had broken up with her boyfriend," which means

that we have taken present perfect and changed it into past perfect, "She had broken up."

Let's take another one, an example with a modal.

"They can swim."

How would we change that one?

Well, like this, "They told me they could swim," "can" becomes "could."

"They told me they could swim."

Let's take an example in the future tense, "He will pass the exam."

"He will pass the exam."

How do we change that one?

"He told me he would pass the exam," alright?

I know it can be confusing, so if you make mistakes with that, it means you need to review

a little bit of your grammatical tenses, and you can understand it, okay?

Now, of course, if you don't make these changes in the recorded speech, it's not that people

are not going to understand you, they will understand you, but if you want to be absolutely

accurate in terms of your grammar, you do need to make these changes in recorded speech,

alright?

So, good luck with that.

I know it will mean that you need to open up the grammar books a little bit, review

your tenses, but I'm sure you can do it, alright?

If you have any questions about this or any other aspects of the English language that

we can help you with, please make sure to go to our website, www.engvid.com.

We have a forum there, you can join us, ask us any questions, and I'll be happy to help

you if I can.

Alright?

Thanks very much.

Bye for now.