1. Reported speech
• When we report someone’s words we
can do it in two ways.
1. We can use direct speech with quotation marks
> ‘I work in a bank’,
or 2. we can use reported speech
> He said he worked in a bank.

2. In reported speech the tenses, word-order and pronouns may be
different from those in the original sentence.
• Now > then
• Today > that day
• This, these> that, those
• Tomorrow> the day after/ the following day
• Yesterday > the day before/ the previous day
• Here > there
………….……..
• Present simple> past simple
• Present continuous > past continuous
• Past simple/ present perfect > past perfect
• Will > would
• Etc.

3. Verb tenses change
• Direct speech: “I travel a lot in my job”
• Reported speech: He said that he travelled a lot in
his job.
• Direct speech: “The baby’s sleeping.”
• Reported speech: She told me (that) the baby was
sleeping.
• Direct speech: “ It will be nice to see you again.”
• Reported speech: She said it would be nice to see
me again.

4. ‘I can’t go with
you now.’
‘We ate a delicious
pizza yesterday.’
She said she was
tired.
She said she
couldn’t go with me
then.
She said they had
eaten a delicious pizza
the day before.
‘These cars are going
to sell well.’
She said that those cars
were going to sell well.

5. Report these sentences
• Ex. ‘My wife is Irish’, Sam told us.
• Sam told us that his wife was Irish
• ‘You look like your mother’, she told me.
• ‘I’ve never been to Italy’, she said.
• ‘We couldn’t arrive on time’, he said
• ‘Juan won’t come with me tomorrow’, Silvia
told me.

6. Answers
• ‘You look like your mother’, she told me.
She told me that I look(ed) like my mother
• ‘I’ve never been to Italy’, she said.
She said (that) she had never been to Italy
• ‘We couldn’t arrive on time’, he said.
He said that they hadn’t been able to arrive on time
• ‘Juan won’t come with me tomorrow’, Silvia told me.
Silvia told me that Juan wouldn’t go with her the
following day. © Dulce EOI Arucas

7. Say, tell, ask  
• She said she was tired.
• She told me she was tired.
______________________________________________________________________
• Questions ()
Do you speak
English?
He asked (me)
if I spoke English.
What are you
doing?
He asked us
what we were
doing.
Where did you go?
He asked me
where I had gone.
© Dulce ( EOI Arucas)

8. Report these questions:
• ‘Have you seen Tom anywhere?’ he asked me.
• ‘What time is it?’ he asked me.
• ‘Did you pass your exam?’ he asked us.
• ‘Can you believe this?’ he asked me.
• ‘Where is everybody?’ Tim asked.

9. Answers
• Have you seen Tom anywhere?’ he asked me.
He asked if we/I had seen Tom anywhere
• ‘What time is it?’ he asked me.
He asked what the time was.
• ‘Did you pass your exam?’ he asked us.
He asked us if we had passed our exam
• ‘Can you believe this?’ he asked me.
He asked me if I could believe that.
• ‘Where is everybody?’ Tim asked.
• Tim asked where everybody was © Dulce ( EOI Arucas)

10. In pairs you are going to have a telephone
conversation following this guide
STUDENT A
• You phone B and you greet
him/her.
• You ask him/her about how s/he
feels.
• You ask him/her about what s/he
did yesterday.
• You invite him/her to do
something (?)
• You suggest something different.
• You do not accept the suggestion
and give another idea.
• You say good-bye
STUDENT B
•You greet A.
•You reply saying how you feel.
•You tell A what you did
yesterday.
•You refuse A’s invitation.
•You accept this second choice
and suggest a meeting point.
•You accept the new idea.
•You say good-bye.

11. Now, try to report the conversation
• I phoned my partner and I
greeted her/ said ‘hello’/ told her
‘hello’ and she told me ‘hello’ too...