Question Forms and Reported Speech

Question Forms and Reported Speech

1. Normal word order is used in reported questions, that is, the subject comes before the verb, and it is not necessary to use 'do' or 'did':

• "Where does Peter live?"  She asked him where Peter lived.

2. Yes / no questions: This type of question is reported by using 'ask' + 'if / whether + clause:

• "Do you speak English?"  He asked me if I spoke English.
• "Are you British or American?"  He asked me whether I was British or American.
• "Is it raining?"  She asked if it was raining.
• "Have you got a computer?"  He wanted to know whether I had a computer.
• "Can you type?"  She asked if I could type.
• "Did you come by train?"  He enquired whether I had come by train.
• "Have you been to Bristol before?"  She asked if I had been to Bristol before.

3. Question words: This type of question is reported by using 'ask' (or another verb like 'ask') + question word + clause. The clause contains the question, in normal word order and with the necessary tense change.

• "What is your name?" he asked me.  He asked me what my name was.
• "How old is your mother?", he asked.  He asked how old her mother was.
• The policman said to the boy, "Where do you live?"  The policeman asked the boywhere he lived.
• "What time does the train arrive?" she asked.  She asked what time the train arrived.
• "When can we have dinner?" she asked.  She asked when they could have dinner.
• Peter said to John, "Why are you so late?"  Peter asked the John why he was so late.

DIRECT AND REPORTED SPEECH

You can answer the question What did he/she say? in two ways:

• by repeating the words spoken (direct speech)
• by reporting the words spoken (indirect or reported speech).

Direct Speech

Direct speech repeats, or quotes, the exact words spoken. When we use direct speech in writing, we place the words spoken between inverted commas (....) and there is no change in these words. We may be reporting something that's being said NOW (for example a telephone conversation), or telling someone later about a previous conversation

Examples

• She says "What time will you be home?"
• She said "What time will you be home?" and I said "I don't know! "
• "There's a fly in my soup!" screamed Simone.
• John said, "There's an elephant outside the window."

Reported Speech

Reported speech is usually used to talk about the past, so we normally change the tense of the words spoken. We use reporting verbs like 'say', 'tell', 'ask', and we may use the word'that' to introduce the reported words. Inverted commas are not used.

• She said, "I saw him."  She said that she had seen him.

'That' may be omitted:

• She told him that she was happy.
• She told him she was happy.

'Say' and 'tell':

• Use 'say' when there is no indirect object:
• He said that he was tired.
• Always use 'tell' when you say who was being spoken to (i.e. with an indirect object):
• He told me that he was tired.

'Talk' and 'speak' are used:

- to describe the action of communicating:

• He talked to us.
• She was speaking on the telephone.

- with 'about' to refer to what was said:

• He talked (to us) about his parents.

REPORTED SPEECH

Tense Changes When Using Reported Speech

Normally, the tense in reported speech is one tense back in time from the tense in direct speech:

She said, "I am tired."  She said that she was tired.

The changes are shown below:

Simple present		Simple past
"I always drink coffee", she said		She said that she always drank coffee.
Present continuous		Past continuous
"I am reading a book", he explained.		He explained that he was reading a book
Simple past		Past perfect
"Bill arrived on Saturday", he said.		He said that Bill had arrived on Saturday
Present perfect		Past perfect
"I have been to Spain", he told me.		He told me that he had been to Spain
Past perfect		Past perfect
"I had just turned out the light," he explained.		He explained that he had just turned out the light.
Present perfect continuous		Past perfect continuous
They complained, "We have beenwaiting for hours".		They complained that they had been waiting for hours.
Past continuous		Past perfect continuous
"We were living in Paris", they told me.		They told me that they had been living in Paris.
Future		Present conditional
"I will be in Geneva on Monday", he said		He said that he would be in Geneva on Monday.
Future continuous		Conditional continuous
She said, "I'll be using the car next Friday".		She said that she would be using the car next Friday.

NOTE:

1. You do not need to change the tense if the reporting verb is in the present, or if the original statement was about something that is still true, e.g.

• He says he has missed the train but he'll catch the next one.
• We explained that it is very difficult to find our house.

2. These modal verbs do not change in reported speech:

might, could, would, should, ought to, e.g.

• We explained that it could be difficult to find our house.
• She said that she might bring a friend to the party.