6.2        Reported Speech

Day 1    Out-of-date Reporting

Direct speech is the exact words someone used. We use quotation marks (‘’) in direct speech.

直述句是把別人所講的一字一句直接引述出來。我們會使用引號 (‘’) 來把別人的說話引出。

E.g. ‘What are you doing?’ asked Jenny.

Reported speech is the exact meaning of what someone said, but not the exact words. We do not use quotation marks in reported speech. 覆述句是把別人說話的意思引述出來，但並不是一字一句地引述。我們在覆述句中不會使用引號。

Say or Tell

 We can use the verbs ‘say’ and ‘tell’ both in direct and reported speech. 我們在直述句和覆述句都會使用‘say’ 和 ‘tell’.

         ‘Tell’ is always followed by a personal object,  

         ‘tell’後面永遠都會有一個賓語

           e.g. She told me that…

          ‘Say’ is used with or without a personal object.
           When used with a personal object it is always followed by the prepositions ‘to’.

           ‘say’ 後面可有可沒有賓語，但若有賓語，就必須加上介詞 ‘to’

Out-of-date Reporting

We can report someone’s words either a long time after they were said or a short time after they were said. The former is called out-of-date reporting and the latter is called up-to-date reporting.

我們引述他人的說話時，可以是過了一段很長的時間才引述 (out-of-date reporting)，也可以是過了一段短時間便立刻引述 (up-to-date reporting)。

In out-of-date reporting, the introductory verb is in simple past tense and the tenses in the clauses change as follows:

當我們是引述很久前的說話，我們用來介紹對話的動詞便應該是過去式，而句中覆述的部份就如下表中的轉換 :

In reported speech, the pronouns need to change according to the meaning.

在覆述句中，代名詞都要按情況而轉換。

e.g.:  Direct speech: ‘I go cycling every Saturday,’ said Margaret.

 Reported speech: Margaret said that she went cycling every Saturday.

Certain words and phrases change according to the meaning of the sentences.

以下有關時間或指示的詞語和短句都要按情況而轉換。

e.g.: Direct speech: ‘I went to Shanghai for a conference last week,’ said Jason.

Reported speech: Jason said that he went to Shanghai for a conference the previous week.

Let’s do some exercises to consolidate what we have just learnt!