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THEORY OF QUOTED SPEECH AND REPORTED SPEECH

Lesson Topic: Quoted Speech and Reported Speech

Let’s say you and your friend, Rebecca, are eating dinner at a restaurant on Saturday night.  Rebecca tells you all about her boyfriend Joshua.  She tells you what Joshua told her on Friday.  She can say it in two ways.

The first way is called “quoted speech.”  Quoted speech is EXACTLY what the person said.  Here is an example:

        Joshua said, “I need to take a taxi.”

According to the above sentence, Joshua said EXACTLY those words.

The other way of repeating what a person says is called “reported speech.”  Reported speech is NOT EXACTLY what the person said.  It is like a summary or paraphrase of what the speaker said.  Take a look at the following example:

       Joshua said that he needed to take a taxi.

This is NOT EXACTLY what Joshua said.

How are quoted speech and reported speech different?  There are 5 things that are different:

Quoted speech has quotation marks; reported speech does not use quotation marks.

  In reported speech, the pronoun often changes.  For example, in the above sentence with quoted speech the pronoun I is used, whereas the sentence with reported speech uses the pronoun he.

  In reported speech, the word that is often used after said, but that is optional.

 Quoted speech is exactly what the person said.

   The verb in reported speech is changed to the past; some modal verbs do not change.  There are rules to follow when changing the verb.  Please see the chart below.

The following sentences use quoted speech.  Change the following sentences from quoted speech to reported speech.  Then see below to get the answers and the explanations.

1.) James said, “I am watching TV.”

Answer: James said that he was watching TV.

Explanation: The only verb that changes here is the verb am.  The past tense of am is was.  Notice also that I becomes he which is the appropriate pronoun referring to James.  Lastly, the that is always optional in reported speech.  You may use that that if you want to, but it is not necessary.

2.) Professor Jones said, “I worked all day!”

Answer: Professor Jones said he had worked all day.

Explanation: The word worked is already in the past.  Therefore, you must put the word in the past past which is called the past perfect (in English grammar, the word perfect means past).  The past past (or past perfect) of worked is had worked.