English – Reported Speech: Statements, Questions, and Commands – BAC

Reported Speech: Statements, Questions, and Commands

Reported speech (or indirect speech) is used to report what someone has said without quoting them directly. It involves backshift of tenses and changes in pronouns and time expressions.

Tense Changes (Backshift):

• Present simple → Past simple: “I study” → “He said he studied”
• Present continuous → Past continuous: “I am reading” → “He said he was reading”
• Present perfect → Past perfect: “I have seen” → “He said he had seen”
• Past simple → Past perfect: “I saw” → “He said he had seen”
• Will → Would: “I will go” → “He said he would go”
• Can → Could: “I can swim” → “He said he could swim”
• Must → Had to: “I must go” → “He said he had to go”

Reported Questions:

• Yes/No questions: Use “if/whether”. Ex: “Do you like coffee?” → “He asked if I liked coffee.”
• Wh- questions: Keep the question word. Ex: “Where do you live?” → “He asked where I lived.”

Reported Commands:

Use “told/asked + to + infinitive”. Ex: “Sit down!” → “He told me to sit down.” / “Don’t smoke!” → “He told me not to smoke.”

Time and Place Changes:

Now → then, today → that day, tomorrow → the next day, yesterday → the previous day, here → there, this → that.

BAC Example 2022:

Direct: “The minister said, ‘We will create more jobs next year.'”
Reported: “The minister announced that they would create more jobs the following year.”

Similar Lessons

• Conditional Sentences: Type 1, 2, 3
• Writing an Argumentative Essay

📍 دروس مشابهة

• English — Countable and Uncountable Nouns with Some and Any — 2nd Year Middle School — Algerian Curriculum
• English — The Past Perfect Continuous: Formation and Use — 3rd Year — Literary Stream
• English — Food and Drinks — Vocabulary and Dialogues — 2nd Year Middle School — English Language — Algerian Program