What is Reported speech?
Reported speech is speech relayed by the narrator. That is, it is indirect speech, words attributed to but not actually (directly) spoken by a character. It is a grammatical construction in which reports are made of something that was said, written, or thought (eg, She said she was going home)
El estilo indirecto (REPORTED SPEECH) lo utilizamos para contar lo que una persona ha dicho pero sin citar exactamente sus palabras.
Why is Reported Speech important?
It is important because it is a great tool to transmit information from a third person or people. We use this all the time. Let us use an example:
Suppose Juan (your friend) says this to you : ' I am going to quit my job'
Now, you want to inform Alice (another friend) what Juan told you. What do we use? YES! We use reported speech. We would say: Juan told me he was going to quit his job.
Why don't we just use the same tense?
This is a great question. In our example used above, we could just say:
Juan is going to quit his job vs Juan told me he was going to quit his job.
The difference is that when you say: Juan is going to quit his job, you are responsible for that statement. In the reported speech we only say what others told us and we are not responsible for that statement. In our jobs and workplace this is very important to transmit information from the sender to the receiver the best way possible.
Is reported speech the same as indirect speech?
Yes, it is. To understand indirect speech we have to know what is direct speech.
Definition: Direct speech is quoted speech that is presented without modification, as it might have been uttered by the original speaker.
For example:
Carlos said,'I love you'. >>>> We say EXACTLY what Carlos said without changing the tenses of the verbs. We have to use quotes or quotation marks ("") in direct speech. This lesson we will focus on reported speech.
Statements:
To use correctly the reported speech we have to learn to change the tenses correctly.
You report what people said by using said (that) + clause (a sentence) or told (object pronoun)(that) + clause. You often change the of the verb in the direct statement "one tense back" in the reported statement. Time references also change.
Pondremos quien dijo la frase seguido de los verbos SAY o TELL en pasado. La diferencia entre ellos es que después de tell tenemos que decir la persona a quien se lo dijo. D.S.: Peter said, “Ann, I’m very ill.” R.S.: Peter told Ann that he was very ill.
The tense changes as follows:Present simple >>>>>>>> Past Simple
Present continous >>>>>>>Past Contiuous
Present Perfect>>>>>>>Past Perfect (had + past participle)
Present Perfect>>>>>>Past Perfect Continous(had+been + past participle)
Past Simple >>>>>>>>>>>Past Perfect
Past Continuous>>>>>>>>>>>Past Perfect
Future "will" >>>>>>>> Modal Verb "would"
May >>>>>>>>>> Might
Can >>>>>>>>>> Could
Must>>>>>>>>> Had to
Some Remain the same
Should >>>>>>>>>Should
Might>>>>>>>>>Might
Cuando pasamos una oración de estilo directo a indirecto tenemos que tener en cuenta una serie de cambios que tendremos que realizar: 1. Tiempos verbales 2. Expresiones temporales y de lugar 3. Pronombres, (utilizando la lógica)
PRESENT
We eat healthy food ---------She said (that) they ate healthy food
PRESENT CONTINUOUS
We are eating healthy--------She told him (that) they were eating healthy food food
PRESENT PERFECT
We have eaten healthy -------She said that they had eaten healthy food
PRESENT PERFECT CONTINUOUS
We have been eating --------She told me (that) they had been eating healthy food healthy food
PAST SIMPLE
We ate healthy food food-----She said (that) they had eaten healthy
PAST CONTINUOUS
We were eating healthy -----She told me (that) they had been eating healthy food
FUTURE SIMPLE
We will eat healthy food food-----She said that they would eat healthy
You report questions by using asked + clause (sentence). You usually change the tense of the verb in the reported clause into the past (THE SAME RULES OF THE REPORTED STATEMENTS)
Seguimos manteniendo los cambios que mencionabamos al principio: Tiempo verbal Expresiones temporales y de lugar y Pronombres persosnles
Rules
- With questions words (who, what, how, why, etc) we do the following.
"When do you play football?" Peter asked me when I played football.
- Without question words (Yes/No questions)
Example: Future "will" to Modal Verb "would"
"Will Maria get married?" She asked if Maria would get married.
Example Present Continuous to Past Continuous
"Are you watching TV?" He asked me if I was watching TV.
REMEMBER: The reported question is NOT a direct question. The auxiliaries do/did is not used.
"Where do you work?"
She asked me where did I work (INCORRECT)
She asked me where I worked (CORRECT)
