Exercise 1
Rewrite the sentences in the reported speech. Change the tenses, pronouns, expressions of time and place.
Related pages:
Online exercises with answers, PDF worksheets and grammar rules.
Reported questions, commands and requests
Remember:
In the reported speech we usually change tenses (one tense back), pronouns, time and place.
"I admire you," said Sarah.
Sarah said she admired me.
"We came back yesterday," they told me.
They told me they had come the day before.
"Peter has put it here," he thought.
He thought that Peter had put it there.
"I'm afraid that your parents won't like me," said George.
George said he was afraid that my parents wouldn't like him.
How to avoid the shift of tenses:
It is simple to avoid shift of tenses in the reported speech if you use the reporting verb in the present simple tense instead of the past simple tense.
"I admire you," said Sarah.
Sarah says she admires me.
"I'm afraid that your parents won't like me," said George.
George says that he is afraid that my parents won't like him.