Reported Speech in English How to Report Dialogues and Questions

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hi everybody my name is Alisha in this

lesson we’re going to talk about

reporting speech in English I’m going to

talk about the verbs we use and a couple

of grammar points that you can think

about so let’s get started the first

type of speech reporting I want to

introduce is reporting statements so

statements are just simple things simple

sentences that people said so this can

be direct dialogue exactly the thing

someone said or it can be a summary of

something someone said so keep in mind

these are not questions I’m going to

talk about questions later let’s look at

the verbs and the other expressions we

use to report simple statements the

first one is the very very neutral said

I said said is the past tense form of

save so we use say and past tense said

as the most basic way to share something

someone else said so we can use this for

direct reports meaning exactly the

things someone said we do this we use

quotes to indicate direct speech or we

can just use it as I have here to

introduce a summary of something in this

example sentence I said I had to work so

this is just a simple summary I said

something similar in the past perhaps

but this is maybe not a direct report of

my speech we can use said in most cases

just to report information this was said

by someone the speaker is here the

subject so I in this case I said I had

to work we could change it to he said he

had to work is fine they said they had

to work so this is the most basic verb

we can use to report speech let’s move

on to a couple other ones let’s look at

this told here I’m using the verb tell

but I’m using past tense told so here

the speaker is

indicated at the beginning of the

sentence he and then the person

receiving the information in this case

me follows the verb so he told me in

this case the train was late he told me

the train was late so this is a past

situation I received information from

him the information was this he told me

the train was late so you can change the

person speaking and the person receiving

by changing these two parts on either

side of the verb my mother told my

brother to clean his room for example so

keep in mind when you use the verb tell

or in this case past tense told the idea

is that it’s more one-way communication

it’s not really a conversation in this

case he told me so meaning information

is coming this way

only I’m not sharing information with

him really

he’s just sharing something with me it’s

one way so we use told to communicate

that of course we could use said here he

said the train was late

using tell or in this case past tense

told just makes the feeling of one-way

communication stronger he told me ok now

I want to go on to some very casual

expressions that you see for reporting

direct speech especially in American

English the first one is this was all

was also I’ve used this in past tense

here you may hear this in present tense

she’s all as in this example but was all

is quite common - so was all is a very

casual way of using a verb like said

however we use this to report direct

speech so these quotes show this is

exactly the thing someone said these

little quotation marks in this case she

was all you’re not gonna believe this so

this is the exact statement the speaker

she said in the past she said exactly

this we know this because we’ve used

this reporting expression

in this case in the written words we see

that the quotation marks here so when

you’re speaking or when you’re listening

for this

you won’t hear she was all you’ll hear

she was all so she was all you’re not

gonna believe this it’s quite fast she

was all she was all so sometimes this W

sound is very difficult to hear you

might just hear she’s all she’s all in

which case it sounds like present tense

but in both cases the basic meaning of

just communicating speech remains so

don’t worry too much about catching this

W sound so this she’s all is fine to

understand what’s going on another one

that uses this same was pattern is using

like another very casual way to report

direct speech so in this case who is

speaking my mom so my mom was like you

can’t go out this weekend

so in this sentence to these words here

are exactly the words my mother said but

we use was like here so you’ll notice

that these two expressions was all and

was like well they’re very very casual

they’re used to kind of report something

that’s maybe shocking or surprising or

maybe a little bit gossipy in this case

maybe the speaker is complaining so it’s

very very casual situations that we use

these expressions and my mom was like so

again this w sound my mom was like this

kind of disappears a little bit we can

also use it in present tense my mom is

like but my mom was like is good for a

clear past tense report okay so we use

the next pair went and go to report

speech very casually so you can see here

there is past tense went present tense

go we use them in the same way again

just as with was all and was like we use

these to communicate direct quotes these

are exact quotes things people actually

said so they went we’re leaving so again

we could say they said we’re leaving but

using went again has this sort of very

casual maybe gossipy like there’s a

little bit of exciting information there

perhaps same thing with go so I go fine

I’m leaving too so we use these two

together in very casual situations that

have kind of a quick conversational feel

about them we can say these things very

quickly in a pair they went we’re

leaving so I go fine I’m leaving too

so having this kind of went and go match

together feels very natural I think to

native speakers same thing here she was

all and my mom was like using these

together in the same kind of dialogue

rapport sounds quite natural I think but

generally using a mix of all of these

two rapport statements is a really good

idea if you use the exact same

expression to report report report all

the time it sounds a little bit

unnatural kind of stiff okay so these

are all four statements these are all

four statements let’s look at two

patterns for questions now so here I

have the past tense asked and inquired

used here I chose these two just because

asked is kind of the casual or the

everyday verb we can use for questions

inquired just sounds more formal it’s a

more formal way of saying asked so some

examples of this are I asked about the

menu and I asked if there were any

vacancies these are two common patterns

I asked about some topic or I asked if

and then there’s some kind of inquiry

point here I asked if there were any

vacancies here same thing we can do with

inquired he inquired about the company

so we see the same about two plus a

topic point we can also with the verb

asked use a direct quote too so for

example I asked what are you doing

that’s also okay we can use ask with a

direct quote you can also use it with

inquired as well if you like but perhaps

this one is a little bit more useful for

everyday converse

stations and everyday questions so

throughout this lesson I’ve talked about

using the past tense and the present

tense for reporting but what’s the

difference so I want to talk a little

bit about that here to finish that so

past tense and present tense both used

to report speech both fine to report

speech here I’ve used simple past and

simple present tense you might also hear

progressive tense in the past or in the

present tense but the difference between

them present tense if you use present

tense it feels like the story is

happening now so if I’m using present

tense to report speech and made me to

share the points in the story as well it

sounds like the story is happening now

it’s present its present tense it’s

happening in the present so if I want my

story to feel kind of lively and more

exciting I can use present tense to tell

my story if however past tense is used

it sounds more like just a simple report

it’s like you’re just telling facts what

happened

there’s not really like a feeling of

excitement necessarily it’s just simple

reporting so we see past tense and

simple past tense story reporting in the

news for example so in the news it’s

simple reports affect what happened on

that day you’ll see simple past tense

used in English news reports so this is

kind of a key difference that you can

think about when you’re telling stories

and you’re reporting information as well

all right that’s everything for this

lesson I hope that it was useful for you

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watching this episode and I will see you

again next time bye

you

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