Reported Speech and Vocabulary
Reported Speech
Verb Tense Changes
When using reported speech, we often need to change the tense of the verb from the original statement. Here are some common changes:
- Present simple (eats/eat) → Past simple (ate)
- Don’t/doesn’t → Didn’t
- Present continuous (am, is, are + v ing) → Past continuous (was, were + v ing)
- Past simple (-ed or irregular) → Past perfect (had + past participle)
- Present perfect (have, has + past participle) → Past perfect
- Past perfect (had + past participle) → Past perfect
- Past continuous (was, were + v ing) → Past perfect continuous (had + been + v ing)
- Present perfect continuous → Past perfect continuous
- Past perfect continuous → Past perfect continuous
- Future: will + infinitive → Would + infinitive
- Can → Could + infinitive
- Must/ have to → Had to + infinitive
- May → Might + infinitive
Time and Place Expression Changes
We also need to change expressions of time and place to reflect the change in context. Here are some examples:
- Now → Then
- Today → That day
- Tonight → That night
- Yesterday → The day before
- Last week → The week before
- A month ago → The month before
- Tomorrow → The next day
- Next week → The week after
- Here → There
- This → That
- These → Those
Yes/No Questions
To report yes/no questions, we use “if” or “whether” followed by the subject, verb, and complements.
Example: “Do you like pizza?” → She asked me if I liked pizza.
Wh- Word Questions
To report wh- word questions, we use the wh- word followed by the subject, verb, and complement.
Example: “Where do you live?” she asked me → She asked me where I lived.
Commands and Orders
Commands and orders are reported using the following structure:
- No subject
- To + infinitive
Example: “Be quiet,” the teacher ordered → The teacher ordered (us) to be quiet.
For negative commands, we use “not to” + infinitive.
Example: “Don’t use your telephone in class” → She told us not to use our telephones in class.
Suggestions
Suggestions can be reported using two structures:
- Gerund + v ing
- That + subject + infinitive
Example: “Let’s go to the cinema” → She suggested going to the cinema (gerund + v ing) OR She suggested that we go to the cinema (that + subject + infinitive)
Other ways to make suggestions include:
- What about going to the cinema?
- Why don’t we go to the cinema?
Vocabulary
Money
- Allowance: paga, prestació
- Balance: saldo (del compte)
- Begging: demanar diner
- Debit card: targeta de dèbit
- Donate: donar
- Fortune: fortuna, molt diner
- Income: ingrés, salari
- Live on: viure, mantenir-se
- Repay debt: pagar el deute
- Savings: estalvis
- Small change: calderilla, suelto
- Wealthy: ric, té molt diner
Time
- Bad timing: mal moment
- Buy (some) time: guanyar temps
- Deadline: data d’entrega, data límit
- Get down to: començar a
- Held up: aturat
- On hold: en espera
- On schedule: a temps, a la data prevista
- Overdue: endarrerit, atrassat
- Put off (postpone): posposar
- Queuing: fer cua
- Rescheduled: canviar el dia
- The next day: al dia següent
- Lateness: retard