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    Tense Changes When Using Reported Speech

    Uploaded by

    Victoria Lipcean
    This document discusses tense changes when using reported speech. It provides examples of how the tense is typically changed to one tense back when something said is being reported. For example, "I am tired" would become "She said that she was tired" in reported speech. Time and place references also commonly change, such as "today" becoming "that day", "tomorrow" becoming "the next day", and "here" becoming "there". The tense does not need to change if the reporting verb is present tense or if the statement is still true. Modal verbs like "might" and "could" also do not change.

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    Tense Changes When Using Reported Speech

    Uploaded by

    Victoria Lipcean
    335 views2 pages
    This document discusses tense changes when using reported speech. It provides examples of how the tense is typically changed to one tense back when something said is being reported. For example, "I am tired" would become "She said that she was tired" in reported speech. Time and place references also commonly change, such as "today" becoming "that day", "tomorrow" becoming "the next day", and "here" becoming "there". The tense does not need to change if the reporting verb is present tense or if the statement is still true. Modal verbs like "might" and "could" also do not change.

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    REPORTED SPEECH

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    This document discusses tense changes when using reported speech. It provides examples of how the tense is typically changed to one tense back when something said is being reported. For example, "I am tired" would become "She said that she was tired" in reported speech. Time and place references also commonly change, such as "today" becoming "that day", "tomorrow" becoming "the next day", and "here" becoming "there". The tense does not need to change if the reporting verb is present tense or if the statement is still true. Modal verbs like "might" and "could" also do not change.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    335 views2 pages

    Tense Changes When Using Reported Speech

    Uploaded by

    Victoria Lipcean
    This document discusses tense changes when using reported speech. It provides examples of how the tense is typically changed to one tense back when something said is being reported. For example, "I am tired" would become "She said that she was tired" in reported speech. Time and place references also commonly change, such as "today" becoming "that day", "tomorrow" becoming "the next day", and "here" becoming "there". The tense does not need to change if the reporting verb is present tense or if the statement is still true. Modal verbs like "might" and "could" also do not change.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    REPORTED SPEECH

    Tense Changes When Using Reported Speech


    Normally, the tense in reported speech is one tense back in time from the tense in direct speech:
    She said, "I am tired." She said that she was tired.
    The changes are shown below:
    Simple present Simple past
    "I always drink coffee", she said   She said that she always drank coffee.
    Present continuous Past continuous
    "I am reading a book", he explained.   He explained that he was reading a book
    Simple past Past perfect
    "Bill arrived on Saturday", he said. He said that Bill had arrived on
     
    Saturday
    Present perfect Past perfect
    "I have been to Spain", he told me. He told me that he had been to Spain
    Past perfect Past perfect
    "I had just turned out the light," he explained. He explained that he had just turned out the
    light.
    Present perfect continuous Past perfect continuous
    They complained, "We have been waiting for hours". They complained that they had been
    waiting for hours.
    Past continuous Past perfect continuous
    "We were living in Paris", they told me. They told me that they had
    Future Future in the past
    "I will be in Geneva on Monday", he He said that he would be in Geneva on Monday.
     
    said
    Future continuous Cond continuous
    She said, "I'll be using the car next She said that she would be using the car next
     
    Friday". Friday.

    NOTE:
    1. You do not need to change the tense if the reporting verb is in the present, or if the original
    statement was about something that is still true, e.g.
     He says he has missed the train but he'll catch the next one.
     We explained that it is very difficult to find our house.
    2. These modal verbs do not change in reported speech:
    might, could, would, should, ought to, e.g.
     We explained that it could be difficult to find our house.
     She said that she might bring a friend to the party.
    Time/place references change when using reported speech
    Example
     "I will see you here tomorrow", she said. She said that she would see me there the
    next day.
    The most common of these changes are shown below:
    Today that day
    "I saw him today", she said.   She said that she had seen him that day.
    Yesterday the day before
    "I saw him yesterday", she said. She said that she had seen him the day
     
    before.
    The day before yesterday two days before
    "I met her the day before yesterday", he He said that he had met her two days
     
    said. before.
    Tomorrow the next/following day
    "I'll see you tomorrow", he said He said that he would see me the next
     
    day.
    The day after tomorrow in two days time/ two days later
    "We'll come the day after tomorrow", they said. They said that they would come in two days
    time/ two days later.
    Next week/month/year the following week/month/year
    "I have an appointment next week", she said. She said that she had an appointment the
    following week.
    Last week/month/year the previous/week/month/year
    "I was on holiday last week", he told us. He told us that he had been on holiday the previous
    week.
    ago before
    "I saw her a week ago," he said. He said he had seen her a week before.
    this (for time) that
    "I'm getting a new car this week", she said. She said she was getting a new car that week.
    this/that (adjectives) the
    "Do you like this shirt?" he asked He asked if I liked the shirt.
    here there
    He said, "I live here". He told me he lived ther

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