1. Reporting Questions: Reported questions with question words (who, what, where, why, when, how), often use statement word order:
- Direct Question: “What caused this situation?”
- Reported Question: I asked what had caused the situation.
Yes/no questions are reported using “if” or “whether”:
- Direct Question: “Did he attend the meeting?”
- Reported Question: She asked if he had attended the meeting.
These rules guide the process of transforming direct speech into reported speech while maintaining accurate tense usage and conveying the intended meaning.
2. Reporting Verbs: When reporting speech, we often use different verbs to convey the general idea. Here are some common reporting verbs and their patterns:
- Reporting verb (+ that): He claimed (that) they made the changes two years ago.
- Reporting verb + someone + that: She informed the team that the project was delayed.
- Reporting verb + to-infinitive: He promised to support the initiative.
- Reporting verb + someone + to-infinitive: They advised the employees to attend the training.
- Reporting verb + preposition + -ing / noun: She complained about the working conditions.
- Reporting verb + someone + preposition + -ing / noun: He accused the company of negligence.
- Reporting verb + -ing / noun: The director denied having any financial issues.
- Reporting verb + someone (+ noun): They offered her a promotion.
2. Time References and Pronouns: When reporting at a different time from the original words, time references and pronouns might change:
- today —> that day
- tomorrow —> the following day / next day
- yesterday —> the day before
- now —> then
- here —> there