5. Rajni and Lucy: We play basketball.
Rajni and Lucy told me that
played basketball.
6. Jyoti: I will have to borrow your eraser.
Jyoti told me that
would have to borrow
eraser.
Answers
Answer:
We often need to tell others what someone else said. There are two ways to do this. One is to say the same words and use quotation marks. That is "direct speech." The other method is to summarize, or tell about what someone said. This is called "reported speech."
Before we get into the rules for reporting speech, here are the terms we are using to explain it.
In the sentence, "She said that she wanted a cookie," 'she' is the subject, 'said' is the reporting verb, 'that' is the conjunction and 'she wanted a cookie' is the reported speech clause.
Subject noun or pronoun
Reporting verb
Conjunction
Reported speech clause
She
said
that
she wanted a cookie.
Rules for reporting speech
To get this kind of sentence right, there are four things you should keep in mind:
The first rule is to choose a reporting verb and tense.
When did the speech happen? With current, repeated or recent events, the reporting verb is in the present tense. "He says he is hungry, so let's go to lunch." A habitual or repeated statement is in the present tense: "Everyone says the water is safe to drink." For reporting less immediate speech, choose the past tense. The reporting verb is often said, but it can also be told, or other verbs like ordered, stated, or reported, depending on the situation. When reporting questions, you can use verbs like asked or requested.
The second rule is to change the perspective, or point of view.
That means I becomes he, she, or they.
"Mary said 'I ate the pie."' becomes
"She said that she ate the pie."
"The boys said, 'We are coming tomorrow'" becomes
"They said they are coming tomorrow."
Next, choose whether to include "that or "if."
You can say, "He says he is at home" or "He says that he is at home." That is a conjunction here, linking the two parts of the sentence. It is optional. Another conjunction, if, is required when reporting on a question: "He asked me if I knew how to play tennis."
The fourth rule is to "backshift" the tense.
This is the trickiest part of reported speech. When the reporting verb is in the past tense, the verb in the reported clause is in the past tense, too. The verb aspect, showing whether the action is completed, matches. Here are some examples:
"I am buying my ticket." (present continuous)
-> He said he was buying his ticket. (past continuous)
Ashley: "I have fixed my bicycle." (present perfect)
-> She said she had fixed her bicycle. (past perfect)
Reporting speech in English would be easy if these rules were all learners needed to know. But as usual, there is more to learn. Let's look at what happens with questions and modals.
Answer:
6) Jyoti told me that she would have to borrow my eraser