Can indirect speech

Might John said, "I might meet him". John said that he might meet him. Should He said, "I should avail the opportunity" He said that he should avail the opportunity.

Ought to He said to me, "you ought to wait for him" He said to me that I ought to wait for him. Imperative sentences consist any of these four things: Order Request Advice Suggestion Most commonly used words to join clauses together are ordered, requested, advised and suggested.

Interjections are removed. Exclamation mark changes into full stop. H words like , "what" and "how" are removed and before the adjective of reported speech we put "very" Changes of "tenses" , "pronouns" and "adjectives" will be according to the previous rules.

Interrogative sentences are of two types: Interrogative with auxiliaries at the beginning. Interrogatives with who, where, what, when, how etc. Joining Clause If sentence begins with auxiliary verb joining clause should be if or whether. If sentence begins with "wh" questions then no conjunction is used as "question-word" itself act as joining clause.

Adverbs and pronouns are converted according to the table 1 and table 2 respectively. This is placed inside the closing inverted comma or commas. If direct speech comes after the information about who is speaking, comma is used to introduce the piece of speech, placed before the first inverted comma.

Steve replied, 'No problem. When , where , why and how. See also: Questions: wh- questions. See also: Verbs followed by a to -infinitive. Indirect speech: present simple reporting verb. Newspaper headlines. See also: Present simple I work Reported speech Reported speech: direct speech. Indirect speech: past continuous reporting verb. See also: Indirect speech: reporting statements. She said she had been working.

Backshift changes. Direct speech Indirect speech. He promised they would be there. She said she would need more money. She asked if she should open it. He added that he could see me at 2. She said she might be back later. He said we could wait in the hallway.

She said we had to pay by 30th April. She said I should go there immediately. He warned that it might snow that night. No backshift. Indirect speech: changes to adverbs and demonstratives. Typical changes to demonstratives, adverbs and adverbial expressions. Popular searches 01 Collocation 02 Comparison: adjectives bigger , biggest , more interesting 03 Future: will and shall 04 Say or tell? Test your vocabulary with our fun image quizzes. Image credits.

Word of the Day have a heart of gold. Blog Outsets and onsets! Read More. November 08, To top. Adjectives and adverbs Easily confused words Nouns, pronouns and determiners Prepositions and particles Using English Verbs Words, sentences and clauses. Sign up for free and get access to exclusive content:. Free word lists and quizzes from Cambridge. Tools to create your own word lists and quizzes. Word lists shared by our community of dictionary fans. Sign up now or Log in.

Definitions Clear explanations of natural written and spoken English. Click on the arrows to change the translation direction. Follow us. Choose a dictionary. Clear explanations of natural written and spoken English. Usage explanations of natural written and spoken English. Grammar Thesaurus. Word Lists. Choose your language. Adjectives Adjectives: forms Adjectives: order Adjective phrases: functions Adjective phrases: position Adjectives and adjective phrases: typical errors.

Comparison: adjectives bigger , biggest , more interesting Comparison: clauses bigger than we had imagined Comparison: comparisons of equality as tall as his father As … as. Adverbs Adverb phrases Adverbs and adverb phrases: position Adverbs and adverb phrases: typical errors Adverbs: forms Adverbs: functions Adverbs: types Comparison: adverbs worse, more easily Fairly Intensifiers very, at all Largely Much , a lot , lots , a good deal : adverbs Pretty Quite Rather Really Scarcely Very.

Above or over? Across , over or through? Advice or advise? Affect or effect? All or every? All or whole? Allow , permit or let? Almost or nearly? Alone , lonely , or lonesome? Along or alongside? Already , still or yet? Also , as well or too? Alternate ly , alternative ly Although or though? Altogether or all together? Amount of , number of or quantity of?

Any more or anymore? Anyone , anybody or anything? Apart from or except for? Arise or rise? Around or round? Note the changes shown in the chart and see the table below for examples. With indirect speech, the use of that is optional.

The situation changes if instead of the common said another part of the very to say is used. In that case the verb tenses usually remain the same. Some examples of this situation are given below. Interface Language. Log in. Install the app. Forums English Only English Only. JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.

You are using an out of date browser.