Reported Speech - he said, she said ...

This lesson is on reported speech reported speech is used to report what somebody said and we’re not directly quoting them but rather paraphrasing what they said and the tense changes when we use reported speech.

You also need to pay attention to pronouns modal verbs are an exception to this rule and reported questions need to be looked at a little bit more closely so here’s some examples when reporting what somebody said and these examples shows the back one tense rule when reporting what somebody said and I’ve underlined the verb so you can see this highlight.

Coffee when reported he said he liked coffee I go running every day.

We report by saying she said she went running every day.

He has been to Rome.

She said that he had been to Rome.

I will be running for president.

He said he would be running for president.

He also mentioned that pronouns can change and it depends on who is talking to whom.

I like coffee.

He said he liked coffee I go running every day.

She said she went running every day.

I like your shirt.

She said that she liked my or her or his shirt depending on who she said it to.

She said it to me she liked my shirt.

If she said it to a friend of a female friend of hers and she liked her shirt or if she said it to a male person then she liked his shirt.

I like your shirt.

Jim he said that he liked Jim’s shirt so I have to take the possessive form here.

And if they’re talking to us Your house is lovely.

She said that our house was lovely.

And modal verbs tend to be an exception to this back.

One tense rule so the quote I would like a coffee.

He said he would like a coffee it might rain tomorrow.

She said that it might rain tomorrow.

John could help you.

I said that John could help him I should see the doctor.

She said that she should see the doctor you ought to lose some weight.

He said I ought to lose some weight and reported questions do not need help of verbs if you remember with help of verbs is a very quick recap

if I were to say I like coffee as a question they wouldn’t say like you coffee.

They would say Do you like coffee.

And it’s to do is to help a verb and report of questions don’t need them as we’ll see.

Where do you live.

He asked me where I lived.

Why do you care.

She asked him why he cared.

Do you own a dog.

He asked them if they owned a dog.

Now the last one is like a yes no question.

And these usually need a place for word for example.

Do you speak French.

She asked me if I spoke French.

Did you drive here.

He wanted to know whether I drove here.

Is this your first time here.

They inquired if this was my first time here and in this last block you can see we do not always need.

She asked.

I asked.

He asked.

You can say.

Asked wanted to know.

Inquired.

There are lots of different words we can use when using or when reporting on questions.