UNIT 45. Reported Speech 1 (He said that …)

A

Study this example situations:

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Tom: I’m feeling sick.

You want to tell somebody what Tom said.
There are two ways of doing this:

You can repeat Tom’s words (direct speech):
Tom said, “I’m feeling sick.”

Tom said that he was feeling sick.

Compare

direct : Tom said, “I am feeling sick.”
reported : Tom said that he was feeling sick.

In writing we use these quotation marks to show direct speech.
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B

When we use reported speech, the main verb of the sentence is usually past (Tom said that … / I told her that …, etc.). The rest of the sentence is usually past, too:
– Tom said that he was feeling sick.
– I told her that I didn’t have any money.

You can leave out that. So you can say:
– Tom said that he was feeling sick. or Tom said he was feeling sick.

In general, the present form in direct speech changes to the past form in reported speech:

am/is -> was
do/does -> did
will -> would
are -> were
have/has -> had
can -> could
want/know/go, etc. -> wanted/knew/went, etc.

Compare direct speech and reported speech:
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You met Jenny. Here are some of the things she said to you in direct speech:

Jenny
“My parents are fine.”
“I’m going to lean to drive.”
“I want to buy a car.”
“John has quit his job.”
“I can’t come to the party on Friday.”
“I don’t have much free time.”
“I’ll call you when I get back.”
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Later you tell somebody what Jenny said.
You use reported speech:

• Jenny said that her parents were fine.
• She said that she was going to learn to drive.
• She said that she wanted to buy a car.
• She said that John had quit his job.
• She said that she couldn’t come to tht party on Friday.
• She said she didn’t have much free time.
• She said that she was going away for a few days and would call me when she go back.
  -—————————–

C

The simple past (did/saw/knew, etc.) can usually stay the same in reported speech, or you can change it to the past perfect (had done / had seen / had known, etc.):

direct : Tom said, “I woke up feeling sick, so I didn’t go to work.”
reported : Tom said (that) he woke up feeling sick, so he didn’t go to work.
or Tom said (that) he had woken up feeling sick, so he hadn’t gone to work.