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Reported speech exercises: past. Indirect speech in English. Elementary exercises esl.

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Second Conditional – Grammar & Verb Tenses

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Second conditional exercises elementary and intermediate level esl. 2nd conditional sentences in English

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Reported speech exercises: questions. Reported statements in English. Direct and indirect speech. Elementary and intermediate exercises esl.

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przeczytaj fajny artykuł o sępach i spróbuj zadanie 3 i 4 :)

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przeczytaj fajny artykuł o sępach i spróbuj zadanie 3 i 4 :)

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Every kid needs a champion | Rita Pierson | TED

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Melissa Marshall brings a message to all scientists (from non-scientists): We’re fascinated by what you’re doing. So tell us about it -- in a way we can understand. In just 4 minutes, she shares powerful tips on presenting complex scientific ideas to a general audience.

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Please [contact us](https://www.ted.com/contact) and let us know what happened.

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With help from some surprising footage, Derek Sivers explains how movements really get started. (Hint: it takes two.)

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Look at these examples to see how we can tell someone what another person asked.

direct speech: 'Do you work from home?' he said.
indirect speech:He asked me if I worked from home.

direct speech:'Who did you see?' she asked.
indirect speech:She asked me who I'd seen.

direct speech:'Could you write that down for me?' she asked.
indirect speech:She asked me to write it down.

Try this exercise to test your grammar.

Read the explanation to learn more.

Grammar explanation

A reported question is when we tell someone what another person asked. To do this, we can use direct speech or indirect speech.

direct speech: 'Do you like working in sales?' he asked.
indirect speech: He asked me if I liked working in sales.

In indirect speech, we change the question structure (e.g. Do you like) to a statement structure (e.g. I like).

We also often make changes to the tenses and other words in the same way as for reported statements (e.g. have done → had done, today → that day). You can learn about these changes on the Reported speech 1 - statements page.

In yes/ no questions, we use if or whether to report the question. If is more common.

'Are you going to the Helsinki conference?'
He asked me if I was going to the Helsinki conference.
'Have you finished the project yet?'
She asked us whether we'd finished the project yet.

Questions with a question word

In what, where, why, who, when or how questions, we use the question word to report the question.

'What time does the train leave?'
He asked me what time the train left.
'Where did he go?'

Reporting verbs

The most common reporting verb for questions is ask, but we can also use verbs like enquire, want to know or wonder.

'Did you bring your passports?'
She wanted to know if they'd brought their passports.
'When could you get this done by?'
He wondered when we could get it done by.

Offers, requests and suggestions

If the question is making an offer, request or suggestion, we can use a specific verb pattern instead, for example offer + infinitive, ask + infinitive or suggest + ing.

'Would you like me to help you?' 'Can you hold this for me, please?' 'Why don't we check with Joel?'
She suggested checking with Joel.

Do this exercise to test your grammar again.

Language level

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Do you know how to report a question that somebody asked? Test what you know with interactive exercises and read the explanation to help you.

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Cel lekcji: dziś nauczę się przytaczać czyjąś wypowiedź

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Tenses in the reported speech - exercise 1. Direct and indirect speech. Intermediate exercises esl.

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What is indirect speech or reported speech?

When we tell people what another person said or thought, we often use reported speech or indirect speech. To do that, we need to change verb tenses (present, past, etc.) and pronouns ( I, you, my, your, etc.) if the time and speaker are different. For example, present tenses become past, I becomes he or she, and my becomes his or her, etc.

Omission of that

We often leave out that after reporting verbs like say, think, etc.

The most common verbs we use in reported speech are say and tell. We must pay attention here. We say tell somebody something, and say something (to somebody).

Tense changes in indirect speech

When a person said something in the past and now we tell somebody what that person said, the time is different, and for this reason, the verb tenses change. Look at a summary of these changes.

Changes in expressions

There are adverbs or expressions of time and place that change when we report what someone said. Here you have a list.

Questions in indirect speech

We use the normal order of words in reported questions, i.e. the subject comes before the verb, and it is not necessary to use do or did.

Imperatives in indirect speech

When we report an order or instruction, we use the form ask or tell someone to do something.

Pronoun changes in indirect speech

In reported or indirect speech we must also pay attention to the use of pronouns. When a person tells us something, he or she uses the first person ( I, me, my, we, us, our) to talk about himself or herself and the second person ( you, your) to talk about us, the person listening. But when we tell someone else what that person said, we are going to use the third person ( he, she, his, her, etc.) to talk about the speaker and the first person ( I, me, my) to talk about ourselves, the listener.

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Indirect speech - reported speech - Test-English

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Reported speech - indirect speech. Reporting statements, questions and commands. Reporting verbs. English intermediate grammar exercises.

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The Power of Purpose in Business | Ashley M. Grice | TED

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The Secret to Great Public Speaking (No, It's Not Confidence) | Jess Ekstrom | TEDxSugar Creek Women