More on Reported Speech

By: Sean Savoie

Happy Lunar New Year Everybody! An extra special New Year wish goes to my regular readers. You stimulate and motivate me! Please continue to study English and communicate to make our community a better place.

Though it is tempting to begin the New Year with a completely different lesson, we will continue from last lesson and practice reported speech. Remember that all verb tenses, with the exception of modal auxiliaries, normally move back one level when reporting speech. Here are the example sentences given as homework in the last issue:

1) "I will give you a call tomorrow if my cell phone is working," said Ian.

2) "Later today I am having a party, and I hope you can come," said Irene.

3) "My boss would send you some e-mail, but his computer crashed yesterday," said Steve.

4) "We wanted to buy the product and ask many questions about services," said Jennifer.

5) "Many of my friends had called me by the time I got home," said Dave.

In the above sentences, let us assume that the speaker is talking to "me". The way to report the sentences above are as follows:

1) Ian said he would give me a call the following day if his cell phone was working.

2) Irene said she was having a party later that day, and she hoped I could come.

3) Steve said his boss would send me some e-mail, but his boss's computer had crashed the day before.

4) Jennifer said they had wanted to buy the product and ask many questions about services.

5) Dave said many of his friends had called him by the time he had gotten home.

In number three, "his computer" must become "his boss's computer" because there are two possible people. Also notice that the word "ask" in number four does not need to become past tense. This is because it is part of the infinitive combination "to buy and to ask". This infinitive is actually the object, not the main verb, of the sentence. One must be careful when indirectly reporting speech; the pronoun and verb changes can create misunderstanding.

Reporting a command is possibly the easiest form. The command form is the form used when a person tells another to do something. In this case, simply use the infinitive verb.

For example:

"Have a nice day," said John.

John said to have a nice day.

"Be careful," Judy said.

Judy said to be careful.

"Watch out!" said the teacher.

The teacher said to watch out.

"Close the door," said Tom.

Tom said to close the door.

However, be careful about changes in pronouns and places.

"You come here," said the guide.

The guide told me to go there.

Those of you who love grammar like I do will enjoy reporting speech in the form of questions. Both open questions and closed questions require noun clauses when the question is reported. We can take a look first at open questions, also called Wh questions. Examine the questions below and note how this question is reported:

"Where are we going to go when your relatives come to town?" asked Sharon.

Sharon asked where they were going to go when their relatives came to town.

"When do you want to have dinner?" Leslie asked her brother.

Leslie asked her brother when he wanted to have dinner.

"How did you learn so much in one month?" Carl asked his friend.

Carl asked his friend how he, that friend, had learned so much in one month.

Here is a good reported speech question for those students who enjoy tricky grammar. This is a fun one. Notice that the conditional is a past tense real conditional:

"Why did you call me if you knew I did not have my phone?" Mary asked Tom.

Mary asked Tom why he had called her if he had known she had not had her phone.

OK. Enough fun. Take a look at how closed questions, also called yes/no questions, change when they are reported in speech. Remember that noun clauses in answer to closed questions can be formed using the following expressions:

If...

If... or not.

Whether...

Whether... or not

Whether or not...

Take a look at the five possible ways to report the sentence below:

Example: "Do you want to go out to a restaurant?" Eric asked his wife.

1) Eric asked his wife if she wanted to go out to a restaurant.

2) Eric asked his wife if she wanted to go out to a restaurant or not.

3) Eric asked his wife whether she wanted to go to a restaurant.

4) Eric asked his wife whether she wanted to go to a restaurant or not.

5) Eric asked his wife whether or not she wanted to go to a restaurant.

Each of the above five statements has exactly the same meaning.

Take some time to write out the reported speech for the sentences below. Keep in mind that there are at least five possible answers for each question. One correct answer for each question will be given in next week's issue of the New York Community Times.

1) "Will you get a newspaper at the store this morning?" Paul asked.

2) "Is the year of the rat going to be a lucky year?" asked Johnny.

3) "Are those your dogs?" the lady asked.

4) "Does Lee do well in school?" asked Kim.

5) "Did your sister find a job in Boston? asked Rita.

6) "Have you read any good books this month? asked Bob.

7) "Have you been studying Spanish?" asked Miguel.

8) "Would you call me if you had a problem?" asked the detective.