How to use Reported Speech Basic English Grammar
everybody welcome back to our weekly
live stream my name is Alisha and today
we’re going to talk about reporting
speech in English I’m going to focus on
verbs for this lesson I’m going to talk
about the differences and the different
ways to use say tell talk speak and ask
in this lesson so during today’s live
lesson please feel free to send your
example sentences in the chat I will try
to check them live on either Facebook or
YouTube but there are a lot so please
send along a few as you think of them we
have a couple of announcements as usual
there’s free stuff for everybody
watching we always have free things for
you in the link below the video on
YouTube or above the video on Facebook
there are free vocabulary PDFs these are
a bunch of different topics so you can
pick up one or all of these and study a
few vocabulary points these are this is
the shopping one we have many topics so
check out the link below the video or
above the video to download those for
free the other thing I’ve been talking a
lot about it this month but please make
sure if you have a question that you
have not shared yet please send it along
to our Q&A our question and answer
series this is called ask Alicia so if
you don’t know about this viewers out
there you can send me a question at our
official question page and I will choose
some questions and try my best to
hopefully to answer your questions
these can be small grammar questions or
word history questions or click
questions about the difference between a
few words so if you have some questions
please send those to English class
101.com / ask - Alicia so I can check
them
all right announcements are done and I
see many people in the chat hello
everybody thanks for watching I see on
YouTube Rendell gertrudis Ronald norelli
Habib Oscar Rahul hello everybody and on
Facebook I see Clara and MD hello
Abdullah Ricardo Theo maybe hello
Instagram sorry I can’t see your
comments live but hello to everybody
there okay so as I said today we’re
going to talk about reporting speech
reporting speech so as always if you
have not already please make sure to
like and share the video so other
learners can find today’s lesson I’m
going to share the video and then I’m
going to begin so we are going to start
today’s lesson with a background point
by that I mean we’re going to start the
lessons by talking about something
that’s important for all of these verbs
not just for one verb so that is this
point right here before we talk about
today’s verbs and the example sentences
I want to talk about this point first
when you want to report something like
your friend told you something or your
boss like someone’s words when you want
to report that first choose your tense
choose your tense so that means if you
want to talk about a past conversation
so it happened yesterday or last week if
you want to talk about a past
conversation this verb like say or tell
or whatever should be in past tense past
tense if you want to talk about
something that’s true now something that
is true now use present tense to use
present tense we’ll cover some examples
of these if you want to talk about
something regularly said so something
regularly said means something that
someone often says so they didn’t say it
just one time
they say it every day or they say it
every month in that case use present
tense present tense and are you making a
guess about the future are you talking
about the future conversation imagining
a future conversation in that case use a
future tense expression like will or
going to so please keep in mind these
points how to choose your tense for your
verb here so please think about this as
we go through today’s lesson Oh get okey
so with that in mind let’s take a look
at our first verb our first verb for
today’s lesson is the verb say say so
say past tense is said said so I’ll
write it here past tense is said saaid
we use say for a neutral report of
speech so it’s not positive it’s not
negative it’s just a basic report of
speech for example my neighbor said our
music was too loud my neighbor said our
music was too loud so we know from this
past tense use of said that this is a
past conversation our neighbor said our
music was too loud
so this could be yesterday for example
our music was too loud yesterday or last
night another example my friend says
crazy things on Twitter my friend says
crazy things on Twitter in this sentence
may be hard to see in this sentence I’m
using SEZ SEZ s ays this is a present
tense use of the verb
my friend says crazy things on Twitter
again I’m using this present tense
because this is a regular occurrence
this is something that happens often so
not my friend said
something crazy on Twitter my friend
said something crazy means that was one
time this sentence in present tense
means my friend often says crazy things
on Twitter that’s the difference between
said and says in a situation like this
okay and please feel free to send your
example sentences into let’s take a look
then at a future tense example for
example if I quit my job if I quit my
job
oh okay my parents my parents will
probably say my parents will probably
say so here this is a future tense part
of a future tense expression I’m crazy
I’m crazy so in this sentence I’m making
a guess I’m making a guess if I quit my
job I’m using an if conditional here
yeah if I quit my job my parents here’s
my future will probably will probably so
I’m making a guess about the future will
probably say so there’s no change to the
verb here but I am making a future
expression I’m talking about the future
here my parents will probably say I’m
crazy
okay so I’ll look for some examples now
on YouTube David says my friend says
Alicia is an amazing teacher woohoo your
friend is cool Thanks okay uh Anna says
my teacher said yesterday Anna you are
amazing great that’s awesome very nice
okay good one um a mirror on YouTube
says my teacher Alicia said the YouTube
users are noisy nice sentence nice
sentence you guys are great you’re not
noisy you’re not noisy okay ah Nicole
Todd all four says my friend says he
wants to go to Italy perfect so my
friend says he wants to go to Italy
means that’s something regular that’s
something your friend regularly often
said on Facebook on Facebook Messiah hey
Messiah says someone says it is not true
okay that’s a that could be good that
could be good Jumma says i said that i
was going home perfect nice one far far
away says my mom said i should be
hitting the sack now nice one that was
really natural great-great nice
expressions everybody so this is how we
use said for past conversations for
regular things and to make future
expressions to make a guess about the
future okay and if you have any
questions please send those along too
but maybe today is a good chance to
practice a lot of sentences all right
excellent
with that then before we go to part 2 I
will take a short break and introduce a
couple PDFs I showed you last week some
of these for sure but we can use this
camera today yes okay so I want to share
a couple of the PDFs I thought would be
useful first one is this business
English one this topic today’s topic is
super important for let’em business
meetings so please check out this list
of vocabulary and phrases you can use
for business meetings and if you have an
emergency this one is new this is a new
one emergency words this is a new PDF
this one has vocabulary for emergencies
but I thought on the back when speaking
to like police or speaking to someone in
an emergency these are expressions you
can use for that conversation and so
when you need to talk about when you
need to explain something someone else
said this is what you need to do these
are
I thought this would go well so these
are a couple examples I will show you
some more later but you can download
these from the link below the video if
you’re watching on YouTube or above the
video if you are watching on Facebook
okay so let’s continue on to part two
yes you can find this check the link in
the description on youtube if you’re
watching on YouTube check the link above
like the chat box if you’re watching it
big on Facebook all righty let’s move on
we’ll continue on the next part I’m
going to talk about using tell and talk
tell and talk also a quick reminder if
you have not already please make sure to
like and share the video so others can
find today’s lesson okay let’s continue
to using tell the verb tell so tell I
have a beautiful artist’s rendering I’m
a beautiful graphic here tell we used
tell for one-way conversations so not
100% one-way one-way conversation means
like one person does lots and lots of
talking so yes there are two people in
this situation yes but when we use tell
it’s like one person shares a lot of
information and the other person listens
to that information so tell is used to
describe this sort of conversational
relationship so some examples my teacher
told me I failed the test my teacher
told me I failed the test
so tell in past tense is told told my
teacher told me I failed the test
another example tell me about your
vacation tell me about your vacation so
you’ll notice when we use the verb tell
we follow it with something like me here
in these examples I’ve used me
so this shows the person receiving the
information we can change this me to
someone else like my teacher told my mom
I failed the test or my teacher told my
roommate I failed the test my teacher my
teacher told him I failed the test so we
can change this word after the verb to
change the person receiving the
information so this is how we show the
relationship the person speaking and the
person receiving the information in
these very one-way conversations okay
some good examples are coming in Paulino
says tell me about your family
great great ok let’s take a look at
let’s look at a future a future tense
example so this one oops so if we want
to use this with a future expression we
could use something like going to so
when I talked about using say we used
we’ll probably for the future but you
can also use going to thank you can also
use going to here I’m going to I’m
coming to tell tell my boss about a new
idea a new idea so this is an example of
a future tense expression yes the verb
tell remains the same but we put it
together with a future tense expression
I’m going to tell my boss about a new
idea and native speed this would sound
like I’m gonna tell my boss about a new
idea so that’s how we that’s how quickly
we would say this I want to tell my boss
about a new idea some good examples are
coming in tell me about yourself good
that’s a a nice job interview question
thanks percent
in Korea tell me about your hobbies
great nice example tell me I missed one
sorry tell me about your strengths and
weaknesses great black out Kim matte was
from last week’s lesson about job
interviews nice Abdullah on Facebook
says I have told him don’t do it don’t
do it
ah so when you want to describe direct
speech so the thing someone said exactly
use quotes so this is like an open quote
do you know maybe these marks it’s
really small it’s really small to see
sorry thank you it’s really small to see
these marks these are called quotation
marks quotation marks we use quotation
marks in writing so now is a great
chance to practice using these we use
these to mark exactly what someone said
so we put it around the words someone
said so you can practice using those in
the chat today all right someone on
YouTube whose name is in Russian maybe I
can’t read tell me the truth
perfect tell me the truth is another
common expression with tell so to tell
the truth is one expression and to tell
a lie we use the verb tell in these
expressions so to tell the truth means
to share to say what actually happened
to be honest to tell a lie means to make
up a story to say something that is not
true okay
other examples Nelson says I told him
not to open the door great Victoria says
tell me about a time when you felt
overwhelmed nice one
Sasi says I’m going to tell my mom about
my success perfect nice nice nice
Harrison has a scandalous on I’m gonna
tell my friend all the truths
maybe all everything true about his
girlfriend Oh
that sounds interesting saying sorry
saying how I can’t saintil uh Tingay
sorry maybe I’m going to tell my teacher
my country nice one nice one okay nice
examples let’s continue to the next verb
then let’s talk about talk let’s talk
about the verb talk so talk is connected
to speak I’ve connected these here on
the board because there are some rules
we can use for talk and speak that are
the same as this we can use to or with
when we use these verbs so talk to
someone talk with someone or speak to
someone speak with someone they are both
fine they are both fine to use you can
choose whichever you prefer for me with
feels a little bit more like you’re
doing something together you’re doing
something together but really there’s
not there’s not much of a difference
that’s one point so we can use two or
width with talk and speak and you can
use both of these verbs with about so
about introduces your topic let’s talk
about something or I want to speak about
something so about introduces a topic
with these two firms so let’s begin with
talk some examples that use talk I
talked to my parents about my visit this
is a past tense example so talk and past
tense becomes talked talked in this case
I’m using the preposition to here to
introduce the person or the people in
the conversation with me so I talked to
my parents is great you can say I talked
with my parents as well I feel like in
every day like conversation we use too
more commonly it’s a little bit shorter
and easier to say so a native speed this
sentence sounds like I talked to my
parents about my visit I talked to my
parents about my visit ok let’s go to
the next example one more example let’s
use a present tense one my friends my
friends talk my friends talk about so
here’s a topic my friends talk about new
restaurants my friends talk about new
restaurants every week every week so in
this sentence I’m using a present tense
verb talk I’m using this present tense
verb because again this is a regular
discussion I know that there’s a hint in
the sentence every week my friends talk
about my topic new restaurants every
week so we use this present tense form
when we want to describe something
that’s regular it’s a common occurrence
ok so let’s compare this then to speak
to speak up here so yes we can use these
two verbs for the same thing like I
could use the verb speak in these
sentences I spoke to my parents about my
visit or my friends speak about new
restaurants every week fine the
difference here in this case is that
speak sounds a little bit more formal
than talk generally when we’re just you
know hanging out with their friends
spending time with friends we use talk
when we’re like at work or maybe in a
more formal situation we use speak we
use speak also we use speak for language
abilities so for example I speak English
I speak Japanese I don’t speak Chinese
we use speak for our language abilities
we cannot use talk in this way we do not
say I talk Japanese or I don’t
Hach Chinese cannot use that we have to
use speak when talking about our
language abilities alright some good
examples of talker coming in by the way
I talked about politics with my friends
as Christopher a nice one okay
on Facebook II meant says I talked to my
boss about maybe a three week holiday a
interesting point when you use for as in
your example I talked to my parents for
that introduces the length of time of
your conversation so for example I
talked to my boss about my vacation for
three hours for example for example this
uses all the prepositions all the words
were talking about so I talked to okay
great I talked to my boss about my
vacation okay our topic this for for
three hours means the length of your
conversation that means your
conversation was three hours long so you
can include all of this if you want to
but using four introduces the length of
time of your conversation okay uh other
points Monday blue whoever members hello
there can I talk about the topic over my
up can I talk about the topic with my
boss and I’ll get back to you later
maybe or can I talk the topic over with
my boss maybe that’s at the expression
using over there yeah nice one nice one
okay um other ones she talks about her
cats as Miguel’s that’s a good one
that’s a good one
okay time’s going quick so let’s go to
speak let’s look at some examples would
speak speak first the past tense the
past tense of speak is spoke so spoke I
have it in my example sentence here my
first example
sentence speak become spoke in past
tense the past participle form is spoken
spoken so have you spoken to her yet
have you spoken to him yet so I spoke to
my manager I spoke to my manager again
we can use talk here it’s fine I talked
to my manager I talked with my manager
perfect
also I spoke with my manager also is
great another example uh my friend my
friend my friend often what was my
example my friend often speaks speak so
another present tense example my friend
often speaks speaks with me about
business ideas so again I’m introducing
a topic and a person here with speaks
with me about about so you can include
both points in your sentence also as I
said we use this to express our language
abilities so I speak whatever I speak
Japanese so we can use this verb to
express our language abilities all right
so we’re on to the last point for today
the last verb I want to talk about is
ask ask ask we use ask for questions so
anytime you need to report a question
you can use ask so this means you can
use it for requests for offers for
enquiries so you need some help with
something you can use ask to describe
that and for more advanced learners you
can use this when you’re using like
these indirect style questions embedded
questions - like she asked if I knew
where the restroom was and so
more advanced point but this is the verb
we use to do that so let’s take a look
at some examples first ask the past
tense form of ask is asked asked it
takes the regular IDI ending I asked so
I asked my friend for help I asked my
friend for help here
simple past tense I asked my friend
that’s the person who received my
question you can think of it that way I
asked my friend for help or up in like a
future situation our boss our boss is
going to is going to ask I’m sorry it’s
going to ask about the project status
the project status at the meeting so
here we are making a very confident
guest the guest is more confident
because we know that because we’re using
going to our boss is going to ask about
this at the next meeting so we should be
prepared this is a situation in which
you might use an expression like this
our boss is going to ask about this so
we can use this past tense as we talked
about past tense or past conversations
things that have finished we use it when
present for something true now or for
something that is regularly said and we
use with future tense like will and
going to to make guesses about the
future ok I want to check some of your
examples Mateus says she asked me to
walk the dogs this morning perfect nice
one Mateus on YouTube
another example on YouTube Edgard says I
asked my boss if I could get a vacation
or if I could have a vacation or take a
vacation take a vacation is the natural
verb choice there uh Valdez eval they
see maybe he was asked to renew his
membership at the end of the month good
good good Ricardo has a nice question
asked for or asked about when do we use
good question so to ask for something
means you want to receive that thing
like can I ask for your autograph like
your signature or can I ask for some
time off that’s the thing you want to
receive when you use ask about it’s like
you want to get information on a topic I
want to ask I want to ask you about like
the project status so that’s like you’re
getting information kind of you’re
introducing the topic for discussion
there so it’s not like you’re going to
receive something maybe information but
ask for is like for requests more for
offers ask about is like introducing a
discussion topic kind of okay mmm on
Facebook on Facebook Javier says talk is
talk used when the other person is just
listening no we can use we use talk talk
and speak are used for like two-way or
group conversations tell is used for
like one-way conversations yeah Luis on
Facebook says I will ask the secretary
about the breakfast good bento says I
asked about maybe I asked about the
class okay nice one other examples
Paulina says I asked my girlfriend if we
can hang out tonight very nice very nice
okay great sounds good very nice
examples everybody so these are this is
a quick introduction to a few verbs that
are very commonly confused as well as
choosing the correct tense with these
verbs so I hope that it was helpful for
you of course you can watch this video
again on you
- or Facebook if you missed any points
and if you have any questions send them
in the chat I will check and I will try
to make some changes or make some new
stuff for the future so I have to finish
there we have to be done for today so
thank you very much for joining us for
this week’s live lesson and thank you
for sharing all of your awesome example
sentences and great questions today -
next week we’ll be back with a new topic
next week yeah I’ve gotten lots of
requests from you about phrasal verbs so
I decided to make a lesson with 20 high
frequency phrasal verbs high frequency
means 20 phrasal verbs that are very
very often used in everyday life so I
have a list I’m going to put 20 of them
in next week’s lesson so for those of
you asking phrasal verbs through the
ribs so please join us for next week’s
live lesson for sure that will be
Wednesday October 3rd 10 p.m. Eastern
Standard Time that is New York City time
if you don’t know your local time please
google it you can set a notification on
Facebook or on YouTube if you want to
watch the stream Instagram you’ll just
have to note or you can go over to
Facebook or YouTube so please join us
again next week also please please
please don’t forget to check out the new
PDFs that we have I showed you a couple
of these earlier the emergency words and
the business vocabulary this one is
about that your leisure time activities
which you definitely use especially this
verb ask when you make invitations so
check this one out as well for talking
about your hobbies and of course we have
so many other topics too you can
download all of this for free from the
link below the video on youtube or above
the video on Facebook so we have to
finish there thank you very much for
joining us thank you so much for liking
and sharing the video we really
appreciate it
enjoy the rest of your day enjoy your
week and I will see you again next time
bye-bye
you