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By the end of this lesson, students will be able to understand and accurately use reported speech in English while discussing and categorizing different movie genres.

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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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How can we use reported speech to describe conversations about movies?

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Watch this video to understand the grammatical structure and when we use reported speech.

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🔥 Master Reported Speech in 15 minutes! (3 Simple Steps)

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Work in groups to list your favorite movies by genre and then write one sentence about why you like each genre using reported speech.

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Try this interactive online quiz on reported speech to test your understanding so far.

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Following quiz provides Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) related to Direct & Reported Speech. You will have to read all the given answers and click over the correct answer. If you are not sure about the answer then you can check the answer using Show Answer button. You can use Next Quiz button to check new set of questions in the quiz.

verbal_ability_direct_reported_speech.htm

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Test your knowledge on direct and reported speech with our online quiz. Improve your verbal ability skills and gain confidence in English grammar.

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For students needing extra help: Match sentences to their reported forms. For advanced students: Create a dialogue on movies and convert it into reported speech.

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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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During group activities, I will observe and note down how accurately you are using reported speech to describe movies.

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Take this online test to demonstrate your overall understanding of reported speech and your ability to use it when discussing movies.

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Before you leave, write one sentence reporting what a friend said about their favorite movie.

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Share how reported speech helped you describe movies today. Can you think of any other situations where this skill could be useful?

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Practice reported speech by transforming 10 direct speech sentences about movies into reported speech.

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Prepare a short presentation on a chosen movie genre using reported speech to describe opinions or facts about movies in that genre.

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5 SEC - GENRES - REPORTED SPEECH | Genially