Learn Perfect English Grammar

TRANSCRIPT Hi. My name's Ronnie. I'm going to teach you some very, very simple reported speech things. If you don't know what reported speech is, welcome to the confusing word... World of confusing reported speech and words. Reported speech, maybe when you study it in your class, the teacher or whoever, will call it indirect speech. It's the same. So, indirect speech or reported speech is exactly the same. Yay. Why or how do we use reported speech ? Good question. We use this to report or to write down what somebody has said. If somebody has told you something, this is going to be a quote. A "quote" means you copy the person's words exactly. You have to be really careful not to change their words. Reported speech or indirect speech is usually only used for writing. So, we don't really have to worry about all of these crazy rules when we speak. Whew, thank god. So, we're just going to go through the past, the present, and the future. We're...

Reported speech Definition: Example of Reported speech Reported speech is when you tell somebody else what you or a person said before. Distinction must be made between direct speech and reported speech. We use reported speech in: Statements Questions Request Order Statements We use a reporting verb like (e.g. say, tell, ask, etc.) and then change the tense of what was actually said in direct speech. Direct speech Reported speech He says: "I like cake." He says that he likes cake. She said: "I'm visiting Paris next weekend" She said that she was visiting Paris the following weekend. Direct Speech Reported Speech Simple Present He said: "I am busy." Simple Past He said that he was busy. Present Progressive He said: "I 'm looking for my books." Past Progressive He said that he was looking for his books. ...