Reported Speech, Determiners and Editing

When you tell somebody what another person said, you can do it in two ways. You can keep the speaker's exact words and put them inside inverted commas — that is direct speech. Or you can carry the same message across in your own grammar, with no inverted commas at all — that is indirect speech, also called reported speech. The information is the same; the packaging is different.

Every direct-speech sentence has two halves. The reporting clause is the part outside the inverted commas, such as Ravi said to me, and it holds the reporting verb. The reported speech is the part inside the inverted commas — the words the speaker actually used. When you rewrite the sentence, the reporting clause is only lightly touched, while the reported part is rebuilt from the inside.

Five things can change, and the safest way to work is to run through them in the same order every single time.

1. The reporting verb. said to turns into told, asked, ordered, advised or requested, depending on the kind of sentence that was spoken.
2. The link word. Use that for a statement, if or whether for a yes-no question, the question word itself for a wh-question, and to for a command or a request.
3. The pronouns, because the speaker's I and you are not the same people as your I and you.
4. The tense, which normally takes one step back into the past.
5. The words for time and place, because you are reporting later, and usually somewhere else.

Here is the whole method working on one sentence. Begin with Ravi said to me, “I am reading your book now.”

1. Reporting verb. A listener is named (me), so said to becomes told. We now have Ravi told me.
2. Link word. The spoken sentence is a statement, so the link word is that.
3. Pronouns. I stands for the speaker, Ravi, so it becomes he. your stands for the listener, who is me, so it becomes my.
4. Tense. am reading steps back to was reading.
5. Time word. now becomes then.

The finished sentence is Ravi told me that he was reading my book then. Notice that you never had to guess: each change was decided by a separate rule, and the rules were applied one after another.

Punctuation counts as part of the answer. The comma before the inverted commas goes, the inverted commas themselves go, and a question mark or exclamation mark that stood inside them is replaced by a full stop at the end of the new sentence. The first reported word loses its capital letter unless it is a name or the pronoun I. When you have finished, read the sentence aloud. Indirect speech must make complete sense on its own, to a reader who never heard the original.

A statement is the simplest kind of sentence to report, and it is where the tense rules are easiest to see. The link word is always that. The one decision you make about the reporting verb is whether the person spoken to is named.

• No listener named: He said, “...” becomes He said that ...
• Listener named: He said to me, “...” becomes He told me that ...

Two mistakes come from mixing these up. He told that ... is wrong, because told must be followed at once by the person told. He said me that ... is also wrong, because said cannot take the person directly; it needs to in between. So it is said to me in direct speech and told me in indirect speech — never a mixture of the two.

Now the tense. When the reporting verb is in the past (said, told, asked, replied), the verb inside the reported part takes one step back in time. This is called the backshift. Learn it as pairs:

• is / am / are becomes was / were
• simple present (writes) becomes simple past (wrote)
• present continuous (is writing) becomes past continuous (was writing)
• present perfect (has written) becomes past perfect (had written)
• present perfect continuous (has been writing) becomes past perfect continuous (had been writing)
• simple past (wrote) becomes past perfect (had written)
• past continuous (was writing) becomes past perfect continuous (had been writing)
• past perfect (had written) stays as it is, because there is no further step back to take
• will and shall become would; can becomes could; may becomes might; must normally becomes had to when it expresses an obligation
• would, could, might, should, ought to, used to do not change — they are already backshifted forms

Two worked examples. First, Meera said to her brother, “I have lost my keys.” A listener is named, so said to her brother becomes told her brother; add that; I follows the subject Meera and becomes she, and my becomes her; have lost backshifts to had lost. Result: Meera told her brother that she had lost her keys.

Second, The watchman said, “I will lock the gate at ten.” No listener is named, so the verb stays said; add that; I becomes he; will becomes would. Result: The watchman said that he would lock the gate at ten.

There are situations in which the tense does not move at all. The first is when the reporting verb is itself in the present or the future: She says that she is unwell. The second is when the reported words state a general truth or a permanent fact: The teacher said that water boils at one hundred degrees Celsius. The third is an unreal or imagined situation, which keeps its own form: He said that if he were rich he would build a school. Where the reported fact is still true at the moment of reporting, such as somebody's address, both the backshifted and the unshifted form are used in careful writing; in a class exercise, apply the backshift unless the sentence is a general truth.

Pronouns need the most thought, because the change is not mechanical — you have to work out who is who before you write anything. The rule is short enough to memorise in three lines.

1. First-person words (I, me, my, mine, we, us, our, ours) change to match the subject of the reporting verb, because the subject is the person who spoke.
2. Second-person words (you, your, yours) change to match the object of the reporting verb, because the object is the person who was spoken to.
3. Third-person words (he, she, it, they and their forms) do not change, because they refer to somebody outside the conversation either way.

A short memory hook is S-O-N: Subject, Object, No change.

Work it on Sita said to Ram, “I will return your notes tomorrow.” The reporting verb becomes told Ram. I follows the subject Sita and becomes she. your follows the object Ram and becomes his. will backshifts to would. tomorrow becomes the next day. The answer is Sita told Ram that she would return his notes the next day.

Now a plural speaker: The boys said to the teacher, “We have finished our project.” The reporting verb becomes told the teacher; We becomes they and our becomes their, both following the subject; have finished becomes had finished. The answer is The boys told the teacher that they had finished their project.

Words for time and place shift because the report is made at a different time and in a different place from the speech. These are the pairs to know:

• now to then; today to that day; tonight to that night
• tomorrow to the next day or the following day
• yesterday to the previous day or the day before
• last night to the previous night; last week to the previous week
• next week to the following week; next month to the following month
• ago to before; just now to just then
• here to there; this to that; these to those; come to go

There is sense behind the list, not just habit. You change a time word only because you are reporting from a distance. If a friend tells you at breakfast I am busy today and you repeat it at lunch on the same day, today can honestly stay. In an exercise, though, the sentence is handed to you with no such context, so the standard shift is what is expected. Whatever you choose, be consistent inside one sentence: do not write the next day in one half and tomorrow in the other.

Demonstratives move for the same reason. This and these point at something close to the speaker at the moment of speaking; once you are reporting from elsewhere, they become that and those. So He said, “I bought these shoes here.” becomes He said that he had bought those shoes there. The only exception is when the thing really is still in front of you as you report, and then this may sensibly stay.

A question in reported speech stops being a question in shape, even though it is still a question in meaning. That single idea explains almost every rule in this section.

First, the reporting verb. said or said to is replaced by asked, enquired of or wanted to know. Questions come in two families, and the family decides the link word.

• Yes-no questions begin with a helping verb: is, are, was, do, does, did, have, has, can, will, shall. The link word is if or whether. Both are correct; whether is slightly more formal.
• Wh-questions begin with a question word: who, whom, whose, what, which, when, where, why, how. That question word is itself the link word, so you do not add anything else. Never write asked that where — a question does not take that.

Three things then happen in both families. The question mark becomes a full stop. The word order becomes ordinary statement order, with the subject before the verb. And the helping verbs do, does and did disappear altogether, because they were only there to build the question; the tense they were carrying passes to the main verb.

Example one, a yes-no question: He said to me, “Do you play chess?”

1. Reporting verb: He asked me.
2. Link word: yes-no question, so if.
3. Pronoun: you follows the object me and becomes I.
4. Verb: do ... play loses do, and play backshifts to played.
5. Punctuation: the question mark becomes a full stop.

The answer is He asked me if I played chess.

Example two, a wh-question: She said to him, “Where did you buy this pen?” The reporting verb becomes She asked him; the link word is the question word where; you becomes he; did ... buy loses did, and the simple past bought backshifts to the past perfect had bought; this becomes that. The answer is She asked him where he had bought that pen.

Example three: Mother said to me, “Why are you crying?” becomes Mother asked me why I was crying. Here the helping verb are is part of the continuous tense, so it is not dropped — it simply backshifts to was and moves behind the subject. Only do, does and did vanish, and only when they are doing nothing but forming the question.

Two errors are worth naming. Writing He asked me where did I live keeps the question order and is wrong; the correct form is He asked me where I lived. Keeping the question mark at the end is also wrong, because the new sentence is a statement about a question, not a question itself. If you need to report a one-word reply, use a natural phrase: He said, “Yes.” becomes He replied in the affirmative or, more simply, He said yes.

Commands and requests are spoken as imperative sentences: Sit down. Please help me. Do not shout. An imperative has no subject on the surface and no tense to shift, so this group is reported by a different route. The reported part is turned into to plus the base form of the verb, and the negative becomes not to plus the base form.

Because said would tell the reader nothing about the tone, you choose the reporting verb to match what was meant:

• a firm command: ordered, commanded
• a plain instruction: told, asked
• a polite request, often marked by please or kindly: requested, begged
• guidance for someone's good: advised
• a caution: warned
• a prohibition: forbade, or told ... not to

Once the reporting verb carries the tone, the politeness word is not repeated. Please is dropped when you write requested, because the request is now stated in the verb itself.

Example one: The captain said to the players, “Take your positions.” The tone is a command, so the reporting verb becomes ordered the players; the imperative becomes to take; your follows the object and becomes their. The answer is The captain ordered the players to take their positions.

Example two: He said to me, “Please lend me your pen.” The reporting verb becomes requested me; please is dropped; the imperative becomes to lend; me refers to the speaker and becomes him, while your refers to the listener and becomes my. The answer is He requested me to lend him my pen.

Example three, a negative: Father said to me, “Do not waste your time.” The tone is guidance, so use advised me; the negative imperative becomes not to waste; your becomes my. The answer is Father advised me not to waste my time. Note the position of not: it comes before to, not after it.

Example four: The doctor said to the patient, “Take this medicine twice a day.” becomes The doctor advised the patient to take that medicine twice a day. The verb take keeps its base form throughout, while this still shifts to that — a reminder that the pronoun, demonstrative and place changes still apply even though the tense does not move.

Three related patterns are worth knowing. A suggestion beginning with Let us is reported with suggested or proposed and a clause: He said, “Let us wait for the rain to stop.” becomes He suggested that they should wait for the rain to stop. An exclamation is reported with exclaimed and the feeling is put into words: She said, “What a wonderful catch!” becomes She exclaimed that it was a wonderful catch. A request for permission using may is reported with asked and might: The boy said to his father, “May I go out?” becomes The boy asked his father if he might go out.

A determiner is the word that stands in front of a noun and tells you which one or how many. It always comes before any adjective attached to that noun, which is why we say a beautiful house and never beautiful a house. English has six working families of determiners: articles (a, an, the), demonstratives (this, that, these, those), possessives (my, your, his, her, its, our, their), quantifiers (some, any, much, many, little, few, enough, several, all), numbers (one, two, first, second) and distributives (each, every, either, neither).

Articles. A and an are used with a singular countable noun that is being mentioned for the first time or that is one of a kind among many. The choice between them depends on sound, not on spelling. Say the word aloud: if it begins with a vowel sound, use an; otherwise use a. So we write a university, a European country, a one-rupee coin and a useful book, because those words begin with a y or w sound. We write an hour, an honest officer and an heir, because the h is silent. With letter names we write an MP, an SMS and an X-ray, since those letters are pronounced em, ess and eks.

The points to something already known to both speaker and listener. Use it for a second or later mention, for things that are one of a kind (the sun, the moon, the sky), before superlatives and ordinals (the tallest boy, the first prize), before rivers, seas, oceans, deserts, mountain ranges and groups of islands (the Ganga, the Arabian Sea, the Thar Desert, the Himalayas, the Andaman Islands), before an adjective standing for a whole class of people (the poor, the brave), before musical instruments (play the tabla) and before country names that contain a common noun or a plural (the United Kingdom, the Netherlands).

Sometimes no article is correct at all. Leave the space empty before names of people, single mountains (Mount Everest), most countries and continents (India, Africa), languages (She is learning French), games (He plays hockey), meals (after breakfast) and material or abstract nouns used in a general sense (Gold is expensive, Kindness costs nothing). Words such as school, college, hospital and bed drop the article when the purpose is meant rather than the building: She goes to school means she is a student, while Her father went to the school means he visited the building.

Quantifiers must match the kind of noun. Use many, few, a few, several and a number of with plural countable nouns, and much, little, a little and a great deal of with uncountable nouns. Some, any, enough, plenty of and a lot of work with both. Write many books but much information, and remember that information, advice, furniture, luggage and work are uncountable in English and have no plural form.

The pairs few / a few and little / a little carry opposite feelings. Few and little mean hardly any and sound negative: Few shops were open, so we returned empty-handed. A few and a little mean some, though not much and sound positive: There is a little sugar left, so we can still make tea. The few and the little mean all of the small amount that exists: The little money he had was spent on books.

Some is used in affirmative sentences and any in negatives and questions, except when an offer or request expects the answer yes, where some returns: Would you like some tea? Among the distributives, each looks at members one at a time and can be used of two, while every takes them as a whole group and needs three or more; both are followed by a singular verb, as in Each boy was given a badge and Every window was shut. Either and neither refer to two things and also take a singular verb. Finally, demonstratives must agree in number: this book and these books, that mango and those mangoes.

Two closely related tasks test the same knowledge from opposite directions. In an editing item, one word in a line has been replaced by a wrong word, and you supply the incorrect word together with its correction. In an omission item, one word has been left out, and you supply the missing word, normally with the word on either side of it so that its place is clear. The two tasks reward the same habit: reading a line slowly enough to hear what is not there.

Work to a fixed method.

1. Read the whole passage once for the sense, and settle the time frame. If the passage is a report of something finished, every verb in it should be in the past.
2. Take one line at a time and read it aloud inside your head. A missing small word shows itself as a bump in the rhythm.
3. Run through the function-word slots in order: article, preposition, helping verb, the to of an infinitive, conjunction, relative pronoun, possessive or other determiner.
4. Change exactly one word in a line. Do not rewrite the sentence, do not improve the style, and do not correct spelling unless the task asks for it.
5. Copy the answer in the format the paper asks for, and copy the neighbouring words letter for letter as they are printed.

These are the slots to check, each with a short line to show the gap. A missing article: He is honest man needs He is an honest man. A missing preposition: She is good mathematics needs She is good at mathematics. A missing helping verb: The boys playing in the field needs The boys are playing in the field. A missing infinitive marker: He wants go home needs He wants to go home. A missing conjunction: I waited he did not come needs I waited but he did not come. A missing relative pronoun: This is the boy won the prize needs This is the boy who won the prize. A missing possessive: He raised hand needs He raised his hand.

For editing, the wrong word sits next to a rule you already know. Check subject-verb agreement first, especially when a long phrase separates the subject from the verb: in The list of selected candidates are ready, the subject is list, so it must be is ready. Check tense consistency: He came in and sits down must be sat down. Check prepositions that belong to a word: it is senior to, not senior than; married to, not married with; since for a point in time but for a length of time. Check countable and uncountable determiners: much books must be many books. Check number: childrens must be children, and one of the boy must be one of the boys. Check degree: more better is simply better.

Two habits keep this task under control. The first is to trust the passage, not your own version of the sentence — your job is the smallest repair that makes the line correct, not the best sentence you can write. The second is to check your answer back in the line. Read the line again with your word inserted or replaced; if it now sounds complete and the tense matches the rest of the passage, you are done. The exact way the answer is set out varies between question papers, so read the instruction line above the passage before you write anything.