The Communicative Grammar of English Workbook - Edward Woods, Rudy Coppieters 2002
13.6. Reported statements
Unit thirteen. Information, reality and belief
Sections 256-258
Speech can be reported directly or indirectly. When the reporting verb is in the past tense the following changes are normally made in converting direct into indirect speech:
• present tense forms become past tense forms
• 1st and 2nd person pronouns and determiners become 3rd person pronouns
• pointer words like this, now, here, etc. are replaced by that, then, there, etc.
Past perfect verbs and some modal auxiliaries do not change. The present tense can be left unchanged if the reported clause refers to something still applying to the time of reporting.
Task one **
Convert the following reported statements from direct into indirect speech.
Example: “I’m seeing my boss next week and will ask him for a pay rise,” Alice said.
→ Alice said that she was seeing her boss the next week and would ask him for a pay rise.
1. Edith said: “I’m leaving for Thailand this evening.”
2. A spokesman declared: “Two suspects were caught by the police yesterday.”
3. Helen confided to her friends: “I don’t want to stay here for the rest of my life.”
4. “There will also be widespread frost tomorrow”, the weatherman added.
5. “I haven’t touched a drop of alcohol since last weekend”, claimed the drunken driver.
6. “You can’t imagine what the situation was like two years ago”, the chairman told his audience.
7. “I refuse to reveal the truth now because I’m being blackmailed”, Tom replied to the detective.
8. “If you lend me your sportscar for a day or two, I’ll invite you to my party”, Susan promised Mark.
9. “We hadn’t realized you were taking care of these problems”, the old couple explained to the social worker.
10. “The United Nations must become more active”, the Secretary-General emphasized, “if the organization is to keep its credibility.”
11. “You may be in pain for a few days”, the doctor warned his patient, “but you will definitely feel better by the end of this week.”
12. “It’s regrettable”, the principal told the parents, “that children watch so many violent programmes on TV these days.”
Task two ***
(a) Underline any reporting clauses and equivalent expressions in the following text.
Rewrite the text by giving all the reporting clauses front position or adding such a clause to sentences that do not have one. While doing so, shift all of the text into the past.
Example:
According to reliable sources new measures may be introduced to deal with these problems.
→ Reliable sources said / told us / pointed out that new measures might be introduced to deal with these/those problems.
Care cuts put OAPS’ ’lives at risk’
The government is putting the lives of elderly people at risk and is jeopardizing its own plans to reform the health service, according to a report published on Thursday, 31 January 2002.
It says residential care and support in people’s own homes is being rationed and more than a million old people are suffering as a result.
A spokesperson stresses that the report was compiled by 21 organizations, including Help the Aged, Age Concern and the Alzheimer’s Society.
It suggests that, while the National Health Service might grab the headlines and the lion share of resources, social care is in crisis.
There are more old people than ever, yet the number receiving support in their own homes is actually falling with only the most needy qualifying for help, the document says.
Some 35,000 residential care beds have been lost in the past three years, it adds.
The organizations claim that many elderly people do not receive the help they need with washing, dressing and other forms of personal care.
Others have to wait, sometimes in NHS hospital beds, because they cannot be discharged anywhere else.
Ministers acknowledge that funding for social care has not kept up with the health service.
The report suggests that, without substantial investment, the problems in this area could jeopardize attempts to modernize the NHS. (slightly adapted from www.bbc.co.uk, 31 January 2002)