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UNIT 6: HEALTH AND SPORT
THEORY
REPORTED SPEECH
There are two ways of reporting what a person says:
DIRECT SPEECH: He said, “I am going home” or “I am going home,” he said.
INDIRECT SPEECH: He says he was going home
1. DIRECT SPEECH
Direct speech reports the exact words the speaker says. Put quotation marks (“….”) before and
after speaker´s statement.
The speaker´s statement always begins with a capital letter.
He/She said can go before or after the statement, but is separated by a comma. Commas after
the statement are inside the quotation mark.
1.1. SAY AND TELL
TELL has a personal direct object (me, him, her… ):
She told me she was going to be late
“it´s too late, “ she told me
TELL is not used before questions.
SAY has never a personal direct object:
She said she was going to be late.
“it´s too late,” she said.
2. INDIRECT SPEECH
2.1. Reported statements with no change of tense.
When the main verb of the sentence is present, present perfect or future, there is no change
of tense in the reported statement:
I´, m not going present = he says he isn´t going
Future = he´ll say he isn´t going
Present perfect = he´s said he isn´t going
That can be used after the main verb. The use of that is optional:
