Report the dialogue:
reported speech conversation

Exercise 2

Read the following conversation and report the dialogue in the reported speech.

Mike: "What are you doing here, Liz? I haven't seen you since June."
Liz: "I've just come back from my holiday in Ireland."
Mike: "Did you enjoy it?"
...

---

Check test Answer key Clear test

---

Mike: "What are you doing here, Liz? I haven't seen you since June." Liz: "I've just come back from my holiday in Ireland." Mike: "Did you enjoy it?" Liz: "I love Ireland. And the Irish people were so friendly." Mike: "Did you go to the Wicklow Mountains?" Liz: "It was my first trip. I can show you some pictures. Are you doing anything tomorrow?" Mike: "I must arrange a couple of things. But I am free tonight." Liz: "You might come to my place. What time shall we meet?" Mike: "I'll be there at eight. Is it all right?" Mike asked Liz . And he said since June.

Liz explained that back from her holiday in Ireland.

Mike wondered if it.

Liz told him that she Ireland and that the Irish people so friendly.

Mike wanted to know to the Wicklow Mountains.

Liz said that it first trip and that she some pictures.

And then she asked him if he .

Mike explained that he a couple of things.

But he added that he free at night.

Liz suggested that he place and asked him what time .

Mike said he there at eight.

And then he asked all right.

Check test Answer key Clear test

Reported speech exercises with answers and grammar rules.

How to report a dialogue

If we report a conversation, we use a reporting verb ('say' and 'tell' are the most common, but there are a lot of other verbs like 'claim', 'admit', 'explain'...). If the reporting verb is in the past tense (I said that... He told us that...), we have to change the following:

• Tenses
  "I am hungry," I said. - I said I was hungry.
  "Sarah went to hospital," Terry said. - Terry said that Sarah had gone to hospital.
  "Jim has gone away," Betty told me. - Betty told me that Jim had gone away.
  "We will try it again," we promised. - We promised we would try it again.

• Pronouns
  They called us," said Tom. - Tom said they had called them.
  "I like this," Sarah told me. - Sarah told me she liked that.

• Time and place
  Harry: "She will come tomorrow." - Harry said she would come the next day.
  My brother: "I arrived at Warsaw yesterday." - My brother told me that he had arrived at Warsaw the day before.
  "I'll be here on time," he said. - He said he would be there on time.

• Word order in reported questions
  "How old are you?" asked Peter. - Peter wanted to know how old I was.
  "What did you do?" asked my mum. - My mum asked what I had done.
  "Will you catch a bus?" I asked my sister. - I asked my sister if she would catch a bus.

top