THE NEWS & REPORTED SPEECH

I often present you some news that appear on the press. Well, have a close look at them and you will discover what the REPORTED SPEECH and the DIRECT SPEECH is all about. However, as a starter I will give you some hints:

REPORTED SPEECH

When you are reporting someone's words you've got two ways to do it:

• using the exact words used by the speaker  >>>    DIRECT SPEECH  (Example:  'I'm tired', he said)

• reporting the speaker's words    >>>   REPORTED SPEECH or INDIRECT SPEECH (Example: He said he was tired)

However, before we begin explaining how it works, we must say that the reported speech we will be talking about is a very artificial one as we suppose the situation in which the words were said and the situation in which the words were reported are completely different, but this is not always true. Actually, they may be exactly the same, as in the following example:

- "I have brought you here these exercises" (SITUATION: the teacher is speaking and the students are listening)

- One students raises his hand and says: "Pardon. What did you say?"

- "I have just said that I have brought you here these exercises." (There are no changes at all because the situation is exactly the same: the teacher is speaking and the students are listening at the same time and in the same place.)

Apart from this, remember that there are indirect ways of speaking like in the following sentences:

- I don't know what time it is (instead of 'What time is it?')

- I wonder where I can buy some bread (instead of 'Where can I buy some bread?')

- I don't know if Dad is at home. (instead of 'Is Dad at home?')

- Tell me how fast you can run. (instead of 'How fast can you run?')

Anyway, we will make all the possible changes in our examples and all these transformations are what we call the BACKSHIFT, which is a change that we make backwards. This BACKSHIFT affects three main areas:

1. TENSES.- The changes are similar to the ones made in our language and the try to express the time gap there is between the moment of speaking and the time when the words were reported. Just remember to keep the time gap. For example, the past simple can stay the same or change into the past perfect. (Jane: "I arrived at 7"  >>  She said that she arrived / had arrived at 7"), but in the following example it is better to have it in the past perfect to keep the mentioned time gap: 'This is the present my boyfriend gave me yesterday', said Jane  >>   Jane said that was the present her boyfriend had given her the day before.)
2. PERSONS.- The speaker is represented by the first person and the listener by the second person, while there are no changes in the third person. So there may be changes in the personal pronouns, possessive adjectives and pronouns...
3. OTHER WORDS CONNECTED WITH TIME AND PLACE, which have to be learned by heart, although most of them are similar to our language.

Let's begin with this third area:

DIRECT SPEECH	REPORTED SPEECH	DIRECT SPEECH	REPORTED SPEECH
Now	Then	Three days ago	Three days before
This	That	Next Friday	The next Friday
These	Those	Tonight	That night
Here	There	Last week	The previous week, the week before
Yesterday	The day before, the previous day	tomorrow	The next day, the day after
Today	That day

Reported statements

Peter: "Money is the only thing I live for."   >>>  Peter said money was the only thing he lived for.

Reported questions

We've got two types of questions: WH-questions and Yes/No questions. Remember to undo the inversion because the reported question is actually a statement.

Pam: "Do you like my dress?"    Jim: "Yes, I do"   >>>  Pam asked if/whether he liked her dress and he answered he did.

Albert: "When are you going to read this book?"    >>>    Albert asked the students when they were going to read that book.

Reported orders and requests

A TO-INFINITIVE structure is required.

Mother: "Would you buy some bread for dinner, please?"   >>>  My mother asked me to buy some bread for dinner.

Students: "Don't give us any homework for tomorrow.">They asked Albert not to give them any homework for the next day.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ON THE REPORTED SPEECH YOU CAN HAVE A LOOK HERE!!!!

And here are some Words in the News (BBC Learning English):

• Notting Hill Carnival    (Related articles)

• The secret of giraffes' long legs   (Related article)