Reported speech is a speaker’s words reported in subordinate clauses governed by a reporting verb, with the required changes of person and tense.
Point 13 in REPORTED SPEECH (DIRECT SPEECH) is defined as: Report speech directly inverting the subject and verb in the reporting clause where the subject is a proper noun or noun phrase. A search in iWeb for: ” thought|said|asked * * 1 ” SAID HE , 4159 2 ” SAID HEAD COACH 3022 3 ” […]
direct speech (inverted) Read More »
Point 12 in the category of REPORTED SPEECH for CITATION is defined as: PRESENT SIMPLE of the reporting verb to report information from a written source and a present tense verb in the reported clause. We can start our search with: _nn1 says|tells and then choose nouns related to citation: 1 REPORT SAYS 19880
reported speech (present simple) Read More »
Point 75 in the category of PAST is defined as: Past perfect simple to report statements, where the main verb in the reporting clause is in the past simple. *This point overlaps B1. So we might surmise that ‘said’ and ‘told’ are B1 and other reporting verbs might be B2 within this structure. A search
past perfect simple (report of statements) Read More »
B2 Point 57 in the category of past and perfect simple is defined as: REPORTS OF QUESTIONS where the main verb in the reporting clause is in the past simple. *However, only by investigating the rest of the EGP do we discover that there is an B1 point that clashes here for yes-no questions in
past perfect simple (report of question) Read More »
There are two overlapping points at A2 in the English Grammar Profile for reporting verbs. Point 2 in the category of REPORTED SPEECH is defined as: reporting clause with ‘tell’ + direct object + ‘that-‘clause, with a pronoun shift where relevant. Point 12 in VERBS and patterns is defined as: Verbs, typically reporting verbs, followed
told me that (reported) Read More »
In the English Grammar Profile, B2 point 138 in the category of MODALITY is defined as: could as the past form of ‘can’ in reported speech For example: Victim support arrived at our door and told us that we could expect to write off the next five years to grief. TED The following clusters from iWeb were searched with varying the spaces between said|told * * * could 1 SAID HE COULD 13770 1 SAID
could (reported speech) Read More »
