- LPU MCA Semester 1
- PEL546
- Unit 5
PEL546 · Unit 5: Reported speech
Direct and reported speech: statements and changes in tense, pronouns and time
11 practice questions · in the ETE syllabus
Key points
- Move tenses back: present to past, past to past perfect
- Will, can and must become would, could and had to
- Change pronouns and time words (tomorrow becomes the next day)
- Universal truths keep their tense; told needs a person
Direct speech gives the exact words in quotation marks. Reported speech gives the meaning from a later point, so words change.
Tense backshift (when the reporting verb is past):
| Direct | Reported |
|---|---|
| am, is, are (present simple) | was, were |
| work, works | worked |
| have worked (present perfect) | had worked |
| worked (past simple) | had worked |
| will | would |
| can | could |
| must | had to |
| am going to | was going to |
Pronouns change to match the speaker and listener (I to she, my to her, you to me). Time and place words change: now to then, today to that day, yesterday to the day before, tomorrow to the next day, here to there, this to that, ago to before.
Use said that... or told + person + that... (said to me becomes told me). Statements of universal truth keep their tense (said that the Earth moves around the Sun). In reverse, from reported to direct, the same changes are undone.
Exam trap: told needs a person (told me), said does not.
Try two questions
Choose the correct reported form: He said, "I will call you tomorrow."
- He said that he will call you tomorrow.
- He said that he would call you tomorrow.
- He said that he would call me the next day.
- He said that he will call me the next day.
Show the answer
C. Will becomes would, you becomes me and tomorrow becomes the next day.
Why not A: The tense, the pronoun and the time word all need to change.
Why not B: The pronoun you must become me, and tomorrow must change.
Why not D: Will must become would.
Choose the correct reported form: They said, "We have finished the work."
- They said that they had finished the work.
- They said that they have finished the work.
- They said that we had finished the work.
- They said that they finished the work.
Show the answer
A. Have finished becomes had finished.
Why not B: The present perfect moves back to the past perfect.
Why not C: The pronoun we must change to they.
Why not D: The past simple is not the backshift of the present perfect.