reported speech verbs pdf

Reported speech - 1

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Worksheets - handouts

Reported speech

Worksheets - pdf exercises.

• Reported statements - worksheet
• Worksheet - reported questions
• Reported yes/no questions
• Worksheet - reported speech
• Reported speech - exercises pdf
• Indirect speech - exercises
• Reported speech - exercises
• Mixed reported speech 1
• Mixed reported speech 2
• Reported speech 1 
• Reported speech 2  
• Reported speech 3 
• Reported speech 4
• Reported speech 5
• Reported wh- questions
• Reported speech - worksheet 
• Reported commands
• Reported questions
• Reported speech 1
• Reported speech 2
• Reported requests and orders
• Reported speech exercise
• Reported questions - worksheet
• Indirect speech - worksheet
• Worksheets pdf - print
• Grammar worksheets - handouts

Grammar - lessons

• Reported speech - grammar notes
• How to use reported speech - lesson
• Tense changes - grammar

Reported Speech

Perfect english grammar.

Reported Statements

Here's how it works:

We use a 'reporting verb' like 'say' or 'tell'. ( Click here for more about using 'say' and 'tell' .) If this verb is in the present tense, it's easy. We just put 'she says' and then the sentence:

• Direct speech: I like ice cream.
• Reported speech: She says (that) she likes ice cream.

We don't need to change the tense, though probably we do need to change the 'person' from 'I' to 'she', for example. We also may need to change words like 'my' and 'your'. (As I'm sure you know, often, we can choose if we want to use 'that' or not in English. I've put it in brackets () to show that it's optional. It's exactly the same if you use 'that' or if you don't use 'that'.)

But , if the reporting verb is in the past tense, then usually we change the tenses in the reported speech:

• Reported speech: She said (that) she liked ice cream.

* doesn't change.

• Direct speech: The sky is blue.
• Reported speech: She said (that) the sky is/was blue.

Click here for a mixed tense exercise about practise reported statements. Click here for a list of all the reported speech exercises.

Reported Questions

So now you have no problem with making reported speech from positive and negative sentences. But how about questions?

• Direct speech: Where do you live?
• Reported speech: She asked me where I lived.
• Direct speech: Where is Julie?
• Reported speech: She asked me where Julie was.
• Direct speech: Do you like chocolate?
• Reported speech: She asked me if I liked chocolate.

Click here to practise reported 'wh' questions. Click here to practise reported 'yes / no' questions. Reported Requests

There's more! What if someone asks you to do something (in a polite way)? For example:

• Direct speech: Close the window, please
• Or: Could you close the window please?
• Or: Would you mind closing the window please?
• Reported speech: She asked me to close the window.
• Direct speech: Please don't be late.
• Reported speech: She asked us not to be late.

Reported Orders

• Direct speech: Sit down!
• Reported speech: She told me to sit down.
• Click here for an exercise to practise reported requests and orders.
• Click here for an exercise about using 'say' and 'tell'.
• Click here for a list of all the reported speech exercises.

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Reported Speech with Examples and Test (PDF)

Reported speech is used when we want to convey what someone else has said to us or to another person. It involves paraphrasing or summarising what has been said , often changing verb tenses , pronouns and other elements to suit the context of the report.

*doesn’t change

Formula of Reported Speech

The formula for reported speech involves transforming direct speech into an indirect form while maintaining the meaning of the original statement. In general, the formula includes:

• Choosing an appropriate reporting verb (e.g., say, tell, mention, explain).
• Changing pronouns and time expressions if necessary.
• Shifting the tense of the verb back if the reporting verb is in the past tense.
• Using reporting clauses like “that” or appropriate conjunctions.
• Adjusting word order and punctuation to fit the structure of the reported speech.

Here’s a simplified formula:

Reporting Verb + Indirect Object + Conjunction + Reported Clause

For example:

• She said (reporting verb) to me (indirect object) that (conjunction) she liked ice cream (reported clause).

Here’s how we use reported speech:

Reporting Verbs: We use verbs like ‘say’ or ‘tell’ to introduce reported speech. If the reporting verb is in the present tense, the tense of the reported speech generally remains the same.

If the reporting verb is in the past tense , the tense of the reported speech often shifts back in time.

Tense Changes: Tense changes are common in reported speech. For example, present simple may change to past simple, present continuous to past continuous, etc. However, some verbs like ‘would’, ‘could’, ‘should’, ‘might’, ‘must’, and ‘ought to’ generally don’t change.

Reported Questions: When reporting questions, we often change them into statements while preserving the meaning. Question words are retained, and the tense of the verbs may change.

Reported Requests and Orders: Requests and orders are reported similarly to statements. Reported requests often use ‘asked me to’ + infinitive, while reported orders use ‘told me to’ + infinitive.

Time Expressions: Time expressions may need to change depending on when the reported speech occurred in relation to the reporting moment. For instance, ‘today’ may become ‘that day’ or ‘yesterday’, ‘yesterday’ might become ‘the day before’, and so forth.

Reported Speech with Examples PDF

  Reported Speech PDF – download

Reported Speech Test

  Reported Speech A2 – B1 Test – download

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English Practice Downloadable PDF Grammar and Vocabulary Worksheets

Reported speech (b1).

• RS013 - Reported Speech
• RS012 - Reported Questions and Commands
• RS011 - Reported Speech
• RS010 - Reported Speech
• RS009 - Reported Commands
• RS008 - Reported Questions
• RS007 - Reported Speech
• RS006 - Reported Speech
• RS005 - Reported Speech
• RS004 - Reported Speech
• RS003 - Reported Speech
• RS002 - Reported Speech - Mixed Exercises
• RS001 - Reported Speech - Mixed Exercises
• Adjective - Adverb
• Gerund and Infinitive
• Modal Verbs
• Reported Speech
• Passive Voice
• Definite and Indefinite Articles
• Quantifiers
• Relative Clauses
• Prepositions
• Questions and Negations
• Question Tags
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• Word Formation
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Reporting Verbs Exercises (with Printable PDF)

| Danielle McLeod

| Grammar , Quizzes

Danielle McLeod

Danielle McLeod is a highly qualified secondary English Language Arts Instructor who brings a diverse educational background to her classroom. With degrees in science, English, and literacy, she has worked to create cross-curricular materials to bridge learning gaps and help students focus on effective writing and speech techniques. Currently working as a dual credit technical writing instructor at a Career and Technical Education Center, her curriculum development surrounds student focus on effective communication for future career choices.

English language learners aren’t the only students who struggle with flow and sophistication in their writing structure.

When my students are asked to refer to (or report) the materials they are using to support their claims, they often have a hard time bending information into their own work. Referencing research is an important step in the academic writing process. Without it, you could be accused of plagiarism.

But how do you work supportive text into your own? Let’s review what reporting verbs are and practice how you can use them in-text to provide proper material citations.

What Is a Reporting Verb?

Reporting verbs allow you to tell an audience about another conversation you’ve had or information you’ve received from a source other than yourself. This is called reported or indirect speech.

When you use materials that you did not create in your writing, you need to provide credit to your sources. Reporting verbs, also called referring verbs, are action words that indicate your use of another’s materials. You use them to connect in-text quotes, paraphrases, and information to their original source.

When you use materials in this manner, you are usually using them to support a claim you have made. You also may be using it to refute the idea of another.

For example:

• Rogers and Duckle’s study indicates that economic changes can be influenced at a local level and are influenced by socio-economics.
• Smith concluded that further research on the topic was needed.
• Unbiased reviews of the report state that flood water recession could have been supported by the city’s municipalities and that their neglect was unacceptable.

Reporting Verb Options

Writers new to this process often struggle with sentence structure and will use the same verbs over and over, making their writing redundant and choppy sounding. Practice improves these skills, as does exposure to the many verbs you can take advantage of.

Some of the most popular verbs are listed below and can function in more than one way to refer to the material you are using:

Reporting Verbs Exercise #1

Choose the correct reporting verb from the list to complete the sentence. List: stated, mentioning, pointed out, tell, questions, negates, claims, agrees

Reporting Verbs Exercise #2

Rewrite the original sentences using the reporting verb in brackets. Answers will vary slightly. Example: “You shouldn’t eat before you swim,” said my mother [advise] Answer: My mother advised me not to eat before swimming.

Reporting Verbs Exercise #3

Choose the correct reporting verb to complete the sentence.

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INTRODUCTORY VERBS in REPORTED SPEECH

Related Papers

cahyani prastuti

International Encyclopedia of Linguistic Anthropology

Alan Rumsey

All languages have indexical words and/or grammatical categories (e.g., “I”, “you”, “this”, “that”, the past tense marker -ed) for grounding speech in the situation where it is being used. All languages also have ways of representing a another speech situation within the immediate one through the use of reported speech. Its most basic form, which is found in all languages, is direct discourse, in which the indexical grounding of the reported utterance is imported into the reporting one (e.g., “He said ‘I’ll go’ ”). Many languages also have forms of indirect discourse, in which the indexical grounding is shifted to that of the reporting speech situation (e.g., “He said he would go”). Often the shift is only partial, resulting in intermediate varieties between direct and indirect. There is also free indirect discourse, in which the speaker represents the speech of another without any explicit indication of that fact. Free indirect discourse shades off into the more general phenomenon of ‘voice’, which has been much explored by linguistic anthropologists under the influence of Mikhail Bakhtin. Here I present examples of all these phenomena in various languages of the world and relate them to other aspects of culture and social life.

Rohan Savarimuttu

If the Reported Speech relates to some universal or habitual fact, then the Present Simple in the Reported Speech is not changed into the corresponding Past, but remains exactly as it was. When the Reported Speech is an Interrogative sentence, the Reporting Verb 'say' or 'tell' is changed into 'ask' or 'inquire'. When the Reported Speech is an Imperative Sentence, the Reporting Verb 'say' or 'tell' must be changed to some Verb signifying a command, or a precept, or an entreaty. When the Reported Speech consists of an Exclamatory or Optative sentence, the Reporting Verb 'say' or 'tell' must be changed to some such Verb as exclaim, cry out, pray, etc.

Mariam Poghosyan

Language for International Communication. Linking interdisciplinary perspectives: language for specific purposes in the era of multilingualism and technologies, University of Latvia Press

Simona Luiza Tigris

John Campbell-Larsen

Reported speech is a prominent and recurrent feature of conversational language, but its importance is often sidelined in many ESL materials, with most ESL textbooks treating reporting as a grammar point similar to canonical grammar targets such as passive or causative constructions. The semantics of the reporting verbs and the interactional uses of reported speech are usually given little attention in coursebooks. In this paper I explain the importance of reported speech, particularly in the English language. I refer to corpus studies to challenge some of the widely accepted assumptions about the grammar of reported speech. I also investigate the semantics of the reporting verbs, (including be like) and discuss some of the interactional uses of reported speech in such genres as spoken narrative and topic proffering.

Presentation at SSILA

Amy Rose Deal

Unpublished

Carlos Piera

Nicholas Asher

ABSTRACT. In this paper, we address several puzzles concerning speech acts, particularly indirect speech acts. We show how a formal semantic theory of discourse interpretation can be used to define speech acts and to avoid ...

Memory & Cognition

Thomas Holtgraves

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