Reported Speech Transformation Exercises
Published:
11 They said, 'We may visit Joe tonight.'
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12 She said, 'I can meet you on Tuesday.'
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13 Keith said, 'There is a letter for you on the table.'
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14 'We won't be visiting Tom this evening,' Sam told us.
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15 Eric said, 'They had been talking on the phone for an hour before I interrupted them.'
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16 'I haven't spoken to Mary since last week,' Gloria said.
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17 'They delivered the letters this morning,' she said.
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18 He said, 'I'd like to buy this jumper.'
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19 'They aren't going on holiday this year,' he said.
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20 Jane said, 'I haven't finished my homework yet.'
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21 'I'm going to bed early tonight,' Caroline said.
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22 'My mother is coming to visit us,' I said.
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23 'We don't want to watch a film tonight,' the children said.
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24 'He's playing in the garden now,' his mother said.
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25 She said, 'You must do your homework now.'
Animated Video Solution
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Step by Step Written Solution
Let's work through these reported speech exercises. We will convert each direct quote into a reported sentence by adjusting the pronouns, tenses, and time expressions.
Reported Speech Practice
For item twelve, She said, I can meet you on Tuesday. We change 'I' to 'she', 'can' to 'could', and 'you' to 'me' or 'him' depending on the listener. Let's use 'me'.
12. She said that she could meet me on Tuesday.
In number thirteen, Keith said there is a letter for you on the table. 'Is' becomes 'was' and 'you' becomes 'me'.
13. Keith said (that) there was a letter for me on the table.
For number fourteen, Sam told us, We won't be visiting Tom this evening. 'We' becomes 'they', 'won't' becomes 'wouldn't', and 'this evening' becomes 'that evening'.
14. Sam told us that they wouldn't be visiting Tom that evening.
In fifteen, Eric said they had been talking. Since the original is already in the past perfect, the tense stays the same, but we change the pronoun 'I' to 'he'.
15. Eric said they had been talking on the phone for an hour before he interrupted them.
Continuing with more examples. In number sixteen, Gloria said, I haven't spoken to Mary since last week.
Reported Speech (Continued)
We change the present perfect 'haven't' to past perfect 'hadn't', and 'last week' to 'the week before'.
16. Gloria said (that) she hadn't spoken to Mary since the week before.
For seventeen, 'delivered' is past simple, so it becomes past perfect 'had delivered', and 'this morning' becomes 'that morning'.
17. She said (that) they had delivered the letters that morning.
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