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Reported speech is when we tell someone what another person said. To do this, we can use direct speech or indirect speech.

Example:

direct speech: 'I work in a bank,' said Daniel.
indirect speech: Daniel said that he worked in a bank.

In indirect speech, we often use a tense which is 'further back' in the past (e.g. worked) than the tense originally used (e.g. work). This is called 'backshift'. We also may need to change other words that were used, for example pronouns.

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

direct speech: 'I love the Toy Story films,' she said.
indirect speech: She said she loved the Toy Story films.

direct speech:'I worked as a waiter before becoming a chef,' he said.
indirect speech: He said he'd worked as a waiter before becoming a chef.

direct speech:'I'll phone you tomorrow,' he said.
indirect speech: He said he'd phone me the next day.

Try this exercise to test your grammar.

Read the explanation to learn more.

Grammar explanation

Reported speech is when we tell someone what another person said. To do this, we can use direct speech or indirect speech.

direct speech: 'I work in a bank,' said Daniel.
indirect speech:Daniel said that he worked in a bank.

In indirect speech, we often use a tense which is 'further back' in the past (e.g. worked) than the tense originally used (e.g. work). This is called 'backshift'. We also may need to change other words that were used, for example pronouns.

Present simple, present continuous and present perfect

When we backshift, present simple changes to past simple, present continuous changes to past continuous and present perfect changes to past perfect.

'I travel a lot in my job.'
Jamila said that she travelled a lot in her job.
'The baby's sleeping!'
He told me the baby was sleeping.
'I've hurt my leg.'
She said she'd hurt her leg.

Past simple and past continuous

When we backshift, past simple usually changes to past perfect simple, and past continuous usually changes to past perfect continuous.

'We lived in China for five years.'
She told me they'd lived in China for five years.
'It was raining all day.'
He told me it had been raining all day.

Past perfect

The past perfect doesn't change.

'I'd tried everything without success, but this new medicine is great.'
He said he'd tried everything without success, but the new medicine was great.

No backshift

If what the speaker has said is still true or relevant, it's not always necessary to change the tense. This might happen when the speaker has used a present tense.

'I go to the gym next to your house.'
Jenny told me that she goes to the gym next to my house. I'm thinking about going with her.
'I'm working in Italy for the next six months.'
He told me he's working in Italy for the next six months. Maybe I should visit him!
'I've broken my arm!'
She said she's broken her arm, so she won't be at work this week.

Pronouns, demonstratives and adverbs of time and place

Pronouns also usually change in indirect speech.

'I enjoy working in my garden,' said Bob.
Bob said that he enjoyed working in his garden.
'We played tennis for our school,' said Alina.
Alina told me they'd played tennis for their school.

However, if you are the person or one of the people who spoke, then the pronouns don't change.

'I'm working on my thesis,' I said.
I told her that I was working on my thesis.
'We want our jobs back!' we said.
We said that we wanted our jobs back.

We also change demonstratives and adverbs of time and place if they are no longer accurate.

'This is my house.'

He said this was his house. [You are currently in front of the house.]

He said that was his house. [You are not currently in front of the house.]

'We like it here.'

She told me they like it here. [You are currently in the place they like.]

She told me they like it there. [You are not in the place they like.]

'I'm planning to do it today.'

She told me she's planning to do it today. [It is currently still the same day.]

She told me she was planning to do it that day. [It is not the same day any more.]

In the same way, these changes to those, now changes to then, yesterday changes to the day before, tomorrow changes to the next/following day and ago changes to before.

Do this exercise to test your grammar again.

Language level

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Do you know how to report what somebody else said? Test what you know with interactive exercises and read the explanation to help you.

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Reindeer multitask by chewing cud and sleeping at the same time

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Brain waves and behaviors suggest that reindeer can doze while chewing, a timesaving strategy for sleeping under tough conditions.

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“We couldn’t go into detail by looking only at the brain waves, because we have this chewing in there that disturbs it a bit,” says Furrer, also of the University of Zurich.

Still, other signs also pointed to sleep while chewing. The reindeer were calm while chewing, often with their eyes closed.

“They were in a very relaxed state that resembles the body position of non-REM sleep,” Furrer says.

Together, these strands of evidence “convincingly demonstrate that reindeer are able to sleep while ruminating,” says neurobiologist Niels Rattenborg of the Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence in Seewiesen, Germany, who was not involved in the study.

Unlike fur seals, ducks and long-haul flying frigatebirds, the reindeer show signs of sleeping with both sides of their brains while chewing (SN: 6/30/16). Figuring out exactly how reindeer pull this off would be interesting, Rattenborg says.

Neuroscientist and study coauthor Gabi Wagner notes that Indigenous reindeer herders have a concept that roughly translates to “pasture peace.” Reindeer “need time and space to be quiet and to have peace, to ruminate,” says Wagner, of the Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research in Tromsø.

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Brain scans hint at how well teens will manage pandemic stress

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Brain scans hint at how well teens will manage pandemic stress

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Brain scans give clues to how teens handle pandemic stress

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A study that followed hundreds of teenagers during the COVID-19 pandemic may explain why some people succumb to stress while others are more resilient.

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Here’s how to give a good gift, according to science

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Here’s how to give a good gift, according to science

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Questions or comments on this article? E-mail us at feedback@sciencenews.org | Reprints FAQ

Citations

J. Givi et al. An integrative review of gift-giving research in consumer behavior and marketing. Journal of Consumer Psychology, Vol. 33, July 2023, p. 529. doi:10.1002/jcpy.1318.

J. Givi and J. Galak. Gift recipients' beliefs about occasion-based and nonoccasion-based gifts: The importance of signaling care and meeting expectations in gift giving. Journal of Consumer Psychology, Vol. 32, July 2022, p. 445, doi: 10.1002/jcpy.1239

A.X. Wang, M. Koo and J. Hwang. Remember me, will you?: Overusing material gifts for interpersonal memory management. Journal of Consumer Psychology, Vol. 32, October 2022, p.615, doi: 10.1002/jcpy.1281.

A.X.Yang and O. Urminksy. The smile-seeking hypothesis: How immediate affective reactions motivate and reward gift giving. Psychological Science, Vol. 29, August 2018, p. 1,121, doi: 10.1177/0956797618761373.

C. Chan and C. Mogilner. Experiential gifts foster stronger social relationships than material gifts. Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 43, April 2017, p. 913, doi: 10.1093/jcr/ucw067.

J. Goodman. Giving happiness: Do experiential gifts lead to more happiness? Advances in Consumer Research Vol. 42, 2014, p. 22.

Sujata Gupta is the social sciences writer and is based in Burlington, Vt.

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Here's how to give a good gift, according to science

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Gifting researcher Julian Givi outlines common mistakes gift givers make and how science can help us avoid those costly errors.

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The Endangered Species Act is turning 50. Has it succeeded?

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The Endangered Species Act is turning 50. Has it succeeded?

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While growing up in California in the 1980s, Winifred Frick never saw a condor in the wild. The population of North America's largest bird, Gymnogyps californianus, had dwindled to nearly zero by 1987 because so many were shot, poisoned or captured.

The few remaining wild condors were brought into zoos in the early 1980s as part of a captive breeding program aimed at restoring the condor population ( SN: 4/25/87). A small group of the birds reproduced, and eventually many of the condors were released back into the wild ( SN: 1/25/92).

Today, Frick - now a conservation biologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz - and her 14-year-old son can admire soaring condors while hiking along the Pacific coast. Nearly 350 of these majestic scavengers, whose wings can span nearly 3 meters, once again fly over parts of California and Arizona.

The condors' happy ending is thanks in large part to the U.S. Endangered Species Act, or ESA, enacted on December 28, 1973. The act currently protects more than 2,300 species. This includes more than 900 plants and upwards of 160 marine species.

When it comes to preventing plants and animals from going extinct, the ESA is "one of the most powerful laws we have," says Frick, who is also the chief scientist at Bat Conservation International, a nonprofit group based in Austin, Texas. She should know: 12 bat species fall under ESA's protection, and more than half of North America's 154 bat species are at risk of declining over the next 15 years, according to the group's 2023 report. The ESA is "about protecting wildlife for our future generations," Frick says.

If a species is deemed threatened or endangered with going extinct, it goes through a rigorous vetting process to determine whether it should be added to the endangered species list. Once a species makes the list, government agencies create a plan to help it recover. This might mean describing ways to restore its habitat or identifying ways to halt threats to a species. For instance, being listed under the act makes it illegal to harass, kill or catch any of these organisms. It also bans the import of any endangered foreign animals, as well as any meat or products made from them.

The ESA has catalyzed plenty of success stories over the past half-century. It has helped large predators recover, including grizzly bears ( Ursus arctos horribilis), gray wolves ( Canis lupus) and American alligators ( Alligator mississippiensis).

It has also benefited tiny creatures, such as a brown snail called the Magazine Mountain shagreen ( Inflectarius magazinensis). In 2013, this snail became the first endangered invertebrate to graduate off the federal endangered species list. Its numbers recovered after the Arkansas forest where it lives was protected from logging and construction.

Thanks to the ESA, Southern California's island night lizard ( Xantusia riversiana) - which has no eyelids - also has recovered. And on islands near Toledo, Ohio, the act has helped Lake Erie water snakes ( Nerodia sipedon insularum) slither back from the brink.

Some endangered plants have bounced back, too. In 1997, only 20,000 golden paintbrush plants ( Castilleja levisecta) remained in the wilds of Washington and Oregon. Now more than 325,000 of the bright wildflowers grow there - enough that the species no longer needs ESA protection.

So far, the act has helped keep 99 percent of species under its protection from extinction, researchers concluded in a 2019 study in Peer J.

But it's not all good news.

Across the globe, some one million species of plants and animals are at risk of going extinct, warned a 2019 United Nations report. These species range from parrots and oak trees to giraffes and seaweed. As a U.S. law, the ESA can attempt to help only a small fraction of these.

For many of the species it can protect, the ESA tends to come into play too late in the game. If not given this protection soon enough, species that are now threatened could soon become endangered. And once they reach that critical state, they become far harder to save.

Species success stories

Even amid its shortcomings, the ESA has racked up plenty of important wins for wildlife.

In 2014, the pinky-sized Oregon chub ( Oregonichthys crameri) was the first fish to graduate off the endangered species list ( SNE: 2/13/14). Only 1,000 of these silver minnows were left when the chub was put on ESA's list in 1993. Landowners and government agencies restored bogs and ponds where these fish live. Then scientists reintroduced the chub to these places. Today, more than 160,000 of the tiny fish swim wild in Oregon's Willamette River Valley.

The status of 60 other species has improved enough that the ESA no longer lists them as endangered with extinction, though they remain listed as threatened with extinction. This is the case for the American burying beetle ( Nicrophorus americanus), a carrion beetle native to many states.

A great example of the act in action is how it has protected some of the world's largest animals: whales. Eight whale species, including the humpback ( Megaptera novaeangliae), were among the first animals added to the U.S. endangered species list. In the North Pacific, whaling had reduced the number of humpbacks to an estimated 8 percent of their historic levels, from around 15,000 whales to just 1,200.

In 1985, with U.S. support, the International Whaling Commission banned the commercial harvest of whales. Since then, nine out of 14 populations of humpbacks are no longer considered threatened.

One of the biggest humpback success stories is the Hawaiian-born population, which migrates each summer to dine in Alaska. Now numbering about 11,000 animals, they have "likely met or exceeded their historic abundance," says Suzie Teerlink, a humpback whale biologist based in Juneau, Alaska, who works for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The Endangered Species Act gives whales and their habitats additional protections from other human-related threats, Teerlink points out. These include laws aimed at reducing injuries to whales from being struck by ships or tangled in fishing lines, such as enforcing speed limits for vessels in certain waters.

Criticism of ESA

One important way that ESA protects at-risk plants and wildlife is by requiring the U.S. government to consider how development might affect threatened or endangered species ( SN: 11/27/01). Such projects could include new roads, bridges or pipelines, as well as logging, mining or building wind turbines.

This law "makes people stop and look first," before they tear up or through the environment, says Derek Goldman, national field director out of Missoula, Mont., for the Endangered Species Coalition, a mix of 400 groups that works to protect imperiled species.

But this stop-and-look requirement has critics. "They believe it slows down development," Goldman says. He stresses, however, that the ESA isn't intended to prevent projects from happening. It just asks developers to find ways to limit harm to the local plants and animals that might be affected. For instance, the company developing America's largest offshore wind project 24 kilometers off the coast of Massachusetts is undertaking a host of actions to minimize its impacts on endangered marine species. This includes using bubble curtains to dampen construction noise, employing an observer to keep an eye out for endangered species during turbine installation, and driving their vessels slowly to prevent whale strikes.

Another criticism of the ESA is that, for many species, its protections come too late. As a case in point, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service took 21 species off the list in October because they are now extinct. This includes eight species of birds endemic to Hawaii as well as eight species of freshwater mussels.

A 2022 study published in PLOS ONE found that most plants or animals on the endangered species list only received protection after their numbers reached "dangerously low" levels.

Under the law, species recommended for ESA listing should wait no more than two years before the U.S. government decides whether to list a species. However, for most species, that wait is longer - sometimes much longer, the study found. From 2010 to 2020, the median wait time was three years. In the 10 years before that, it was 9.1 years.

Overwhelmed government agencies are one reason for the delay in listing species, the study suggests. The more species recommended for listing, the longer the wait. It appears that in recent decades, agencies lacked enough people and money to move faster.

And, the study points out, for species "with very small or rapidly declining populations, a multi-year delay in receiving protection increases the risk of extinction."

"The Endangered Species Act has two parallel goals," says ecologist Erich Eberhard of Columbia University and coauthor of the PLOS ONE study. "One is to prevent the extinction of species. The other is to recover listed species."

When it comes to that second goal, he says, the act "isn't succeeding." Just 3 percent of listed species have recovered enough to come off the list, Eberhard and his colleagues found.

Helping troubled species recover

One way to help species rebound is to direct more money toward protecting them and their ecosystems. That's why many biologists are championing the Recovering America's Wildlife Act as a companion law that could bolster species before they require listing under ESA.

This proposed law was introduced in the U.S. Senate in March. It would invest $1.4 billion each year to help states and tribal nations keep wildlife populations healthy. It would help pay for habitat conservation and state research programs. And that money would benefit more than just species on ESA's list; it would also help out 12,000 species of concern on the lists of individual states. Such species include the monarch butterfly ( Danaus plexippus), western bumble bee ( Bombus occidentalis) and dwarf shrew ( Sorex nanus).

If the Endangered Species Act is an emergency room for species whose numbers have gotten critically low, then the proposed law would provide preventive care, working to keep wildlife populations and their habitats healthy.

Frick of Bat Conservation International believes that passing the Recovering America's Wildlife Act could be "a game changer" for conserving wildlife.

As ESA celebrates its 50th anniversary in December 2023, Frick hopes a lot more healthy species will "graduate" from an endangered status.

Teerlink, who focuses on ocean critters, agrees. "Extinction is forever. The future depends on us being considerate and intentional in what we leave behind."

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The Endangered Species Act is turning 50. Has it succeeded?

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After 50 years, this landmark law has kept many species alive - but few wild populations have recovered enough to come off the "endangered" list.

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-You have been assigned to a group. Find your group's column on this Padlet board.

-In your group's column, you will find a link to a news article. This is your group's article to work with.

-As a group, read your article carefully.

-Identify key statements that you can report using the "that clause".

-Make notes of these statements in your group's column on the Padlet.

-Assign roles within your group (such as a reporter, an eyewitness, or an expert).

-Prepare a short speech/report in your assigned role, using the statements you've noted and converting them into reported speech.

-Record your group's news report. You can do this as a video or an audio clip.

-Upload your recording to your group's column on the Padlet.

-After all groups have uploaded their reports, watch and listen to the other groups' presentations.

-Use the comment feature to ask questions or provide feedback, focusing on the use of reported speech.

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“This is the first time in history we’re looking at thousands of participants and getting these measures over time,” Wagner says. “It’s truly remarkable.”

“Without the pandemic, we would not have been able to understand the impact of a long-lasting adverse event,” Stamoulis notes.

The data show that kids with weaker links between these areas were more likely to feel sad and stressed during the pandemic, Stamoulis reports. “Stronger and more resilient brain networks predicted better mental health, lower stress and lower sadness.”

As our brains develop, they respond to many experiences and factors in our surroundings. If those are positive, Stamoulis says, they can be “protective factors for the brain and how its circuits evolve and become wired.”

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When Givi went into this line of research, he assumed that gift givers were simply motivated by a desire to please recipients. Not so much, he quickly discovered. Instead, people often give gifts that satisfy their own desires — for uniqueness, societal approval or as a gag — rather than the desires of recipients, says Givi, of West Virginia University in Morgantown.

Givi: There’s probably hundreds of norms in gift giving. Generally, givers tend to overweigh the importance of these given norms. For example, we would never want to give a used thing. But for recipients, if this used thing is what they want to receive, that’s fine.

Givi: There are a few different papers on this topic. One shows that we don’t give experiential gifts as often as recipients want. Another shows that the majority of the time people give material gifts, but experiences actually make people happier than material gifts. That’s a finding throughout the consumer world. It’s called the experiential advantage. A third finding is that experiential gifts bring recipients closer to givers than to material items.

SN: You wrote in an article in The Conversation about how givers should resist the urge to give a novelty item like a chocolate fondue fountain. Why?

Givi: This falls under temporal focus. Gift givers tend to focus on that “aha” moment, the moment when the ribbons and bow come off. Recipients focus more on long-term utility. Research shows that people are misguided on how much surprise is important. Recipients actually like things that they request better.

The chocolate fondue fountain is an example that I think makes so much sense. Sure a person would go ‘Wow, a chocolate fondue fountain!’ But think about how often throughout the year they might use that. Whereas if somebody gave them a coffee maker, they’d be thrilled.

SN: How should gift givers handle picky or difficult recipients?

Givi: I don’t have an answer for you when it comes to very difficult people. My understanding of that research is that researchers have examined how givers behave when they are dealing with difficult recipients. But they don’t necessarily get the recipients’ perspective. It would probably be hard to get a bunch of difficult people to participate in a study.

But here’s something you could potentially do with a difficult recipient. One of my papers shows that it’s a lot easier to make people happy when you’re giving in the absence of a special occasion. What we find in the paper is you can spend $10 on a random Tuesday in March giving a person a gift versus $50 on Christmas for gifts, and that generates similar levels of happiness.

What you could do with difficult people is sprinkle gifts throughout the year.

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When it comes to preventing plants and animals from going extinct, the ESA is “one of the most powerful laws we have,” says Frick, who is also the chief scientist at Bat Conservation International, a nonprofit group based in Austin, Texas.

The ESA is “about protecting wildlife for our future generations,” Frick says.

So far, the act has helped keep 99 percent of species under its protection from extinction, researchers concluded in a 2019 study in Peer J.

Across the globe, some one million species of plants and animals are at risk of going extinct, warned a 2019 United Nations report.

One of the biggest humpback success stories is the Hawaiian-born population, which migrates each summer to dine in Alaska. Now numbering about 11,000 animals, they have “likely met or exceeded their historic abundance,” says Suzie Teerlink, a humpback whale biologist based in Juneau, Alaska, who works for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The Endangered Species Act gives whales and their habitats additional protections from other human-related threats, Teerlink points out.

One important way that ESA protects at-risk plants and wildlife is by requiring the U.S. government to consider how development might affect threatened or endangered species (SN: 11/27/01). Such projects could include new roads, bridges or pipelines, as well as logging, mining or building wind turbines.

This law “makes people stop and look first,” before they tear up or through the environment, says Derek Goldman, national field director out of Missoula, Mont., for the Endangered Species Coalition, a mix of 400 groups that works to protect imperiled species.

“They believe it slows down development,” Goldman says.

He stresses, however, that the ESA isn’t intended to prevent projects from happening. It just asks developers to find ways to limit harm to the local plants and animals that might be affected.

“The Endangered Species Act has two parallel goals,” says ecologist Erich Eberhard of Columbia University and coauthor of the PLOS ONE study. “One is to prevent the extinction of species. The other is to recover listed species.”

Teerlink, who focuses on ocean critters, agrees. “Extinction is forever. The future depends on us being considerate and intentional in what we leave behind.”