Nível Avançado › Visiting a Sick Friend

DIRECT SPEECH
Dialog: "The doctor said he'd give us an update as soon as he finished his rounds."

There are two ways you can report what someone else has said. You can use the person's exact words, called direct speech in quotation marks; or you can use reported speech. We use reported speech to report what another person has said without using their exact words. The main verb of the sentence is usually in the past tense.

_____Mark said that... / Sue told me that...

And in general, the present form in direct speech changes to the past form in reported speech.

_____am/is = was______do/does = did______will = would
_____are = were_______have/has = had_____can = could
_____want/know/go/see = wanted/knew/went/saw

Let's see some examples of direct speech turned into reported speech. Make sure you change the pronouns in reported speech.

1) Direct speech: John said, "I have to leave work early today."
2) Reported speech: John said that he had to leave work early today.

2) Direct speech: "My parents are feeling very well, thank you," Richard told Steph.
2) Reported speech: Richard told Steph that his parents were feeling very well.

3) Direct speech: July said, "I can come to your party!"
3) Reported speech: July said that she could come to my party.

4) Direct speech: Mr. Smith said, "Alex won't be able to finish his report."
4) Reported speech: Mr. Smith said that Alex wouldn't be able to finish his report.