الكلام المباشر والمنقول

• Recycling is a solution to many environmental problems.
• Radio broadcasting was a very important source of news in the last century.

Reported Speech

• Direct speech is the exact words someone said, enclosed in quotation marks. e.g., "I am ill," said Ali.
• Reported speech is when someone recounts what another person said, without using quotation marks. e.g., Ali said (that) he was ill.
• In statement sentences, the structure is: Speaker + reporting verb + (that) + subject + past simple + the rest of the sentence.
• Common reporting verbs include said, explained, reported, and told.
• Note that 'told' must be followed by an object (the person being told).
• Pronouns are adjusted to match the speaker and listener.
• The tense of the verb is shifted to the past.

Changing Statements to Reported Speech

• 'said' remains unchanged
• 'said to' changes to 'told'.
• 'say/says' remains unchanged.
• 'say to/says to' changes to 'tell/tells'
• 'said' is not followed by an object (person spoken to), whereas 'told' must be.
• The quotation marks are removed, and the word "that" is used to connect the clauses (optional).
• The reporting verb can be changed to reflect the meaning inside the quotations e.g., promised, explained or admitted.
• Delete the quotations and link the two clauses with 'that' where can also be omitted.
• Pronouns must match the speaker and the person being spoken to.

Pronoun Changes

• First person pronouns (I, we, my, our, me, us) change based on who is speaking.
• Third person pronouns (he, she, it, they, him, her, his, her, its, their, them) generally remain the same.

Changes of Temporal Expressions and Demonstrative Pronouns

• If the verb said is in the past tense, time expressions and demonstrative pronouns are changed:
• today -> that day
• yesterday -> the day before
• tomorrow -> the following day
• now -> then
• last week -> the week before
• ago -> before
• tonight -> that night
• this -> that
• these -> those
• here -> there

Changes of Verb Tenses

• Present Simple changes to Past Simple. Example: "I like fish," said Sama. -> Sama said that she liked fish.
• Present Continuous changes to Past Continuous. Example: "I'm writing a paragraph," Ali said to Ahmed. -> Ali told Ahmed (that) he was writing a paragraph.
• Past Simple changes to Past Perfect. Example: "I helped my mother”, Adel said to me. -> Adel told me (that) he had helped his mother.
• Present Perfect Simple changes to Past Perfect Simple. Example: "I've made a mistake," said Adel. -> Adel said (that) he had made a mistake.
• For Modals:
  • can -> could
  • will -> would
  • has/have to -> had to
  • must -> had to
  • may -> might
  • shall -> should.

Further Notes

• The tense of the verb does not change if the reporting verb is in the present tense.
• There is no tense change if the reported sentence expresses a general truth or fact.
• If the original statement was made very recently, the tense may not need to change.