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hi everybody my name is Alisha in this
lesson we're going to talk about
reporting speech in English I'm going to
talk about the verbs we use and a couple
of grammar points that you can think
about so let's get started the first
type of speech reporting I want to
introduce is reporting statements so
statements are just simple things simple
sentences that people said so this can
be direct dialogue exactly the thing
someone said or it can be a summary of
something someone said so keep in mind
these are not questions I'm going to
talk about questions later let's look at
the verbs and the other expressions we
use to report simple statements the
first one is the very very neutral said
I said said is the past tense form of
save so we use say and past tense said
as the most basic way to share something
someone else said so we can use this for
direct reports meaning exactly the
things someone said we do this we use
quotes to indicate direct speech or we
can just use it as I have here to
introduce a summary of something in this
example sentence I said I had to work so
this is just a simple summary I said
something similar in the past perhaps
but this is maybe not a direct report of
my speech we can use said in most cases
just to report information this was said
by someone the speaker is here the
subject so I in this case I said I had
to work we could change it to he said he
had to work is fine they said they had
to work so this is the most basic verb
we can use to report speech let's move
on to a couple other ones let's look at
this told here I'm using the verb tell
but I'm using past tense told so here
the speaker is
indicated at the beginning of the
sentence he and then the person
receiving the information in this case
me follows the verb so he told me in
this case the train was late he told me
the train was late so this is a past
situation I received information from
him the information was this he told me
the train was late so you can change the
person speaking and the person receiving
by changing these two parts on either
side of the verb my mother told my
brother to clean his room for example so
keep in mind when you use the verb tell
or in this case past tense told the idea
is that it's more one-way communication
it's not really a conversation in this
case he told me so meaning information
is coming this way
only I'm not sharing information with
him really
he's just sharing something with me it's
one way so we use told to communicate
that of course we could use said here he
said the train was late
using tell or in this case past tense
told just makes the feeling of one-way
communication stronger he told me ok now
I want to go on to some very casual
expressions that you see for reporting
direct speech especially in American
English the first one is this was all
was also I've used this in past tense
here you may hear this in present tense
she's all as in this example but was all
is quite common - so was all is a very
casual way of using a verb like said
however we use this to report direct
speech so these quotes show this is
exactly the thing someone said these
little quotation marks in this case she
was all you're not gonna believe this so
this is the exact statement the speaker
she said in the past she said exactly
this we know this because we've used
this reporting expression
in this case in the written words we see
that the quotation marks here so when
you're speaking or when you're listening
for this
you won't hear she was all you'll hear
she was all so she was all you're not
gonna believe this it's quite fast she
was all she was all so sometimes this W
sound is very difficult to hear you
might just hear she's all she's all in
which case it sounds like present tense
but in both cases the basic meaning of
just communicating speech remains so
don't worry too much about catching this
W sound so this she's all is fine to
understand what's going on another one
that uses this same was pattern is using
like another very casual way to report
direct speech so in this case who is
speaking my mom so my mom was like you
can't go out this weekend
so in this sentence to these words here
are exactly the words my mother said but
we use was like here so you'll notice
that these two expressions was all and
was like well they're very very casual
they're used to kind of report something
that's maybe shocking or surprising or
maybe a little bit gossipy in this case
maybe the speaker is complaining so it's
very very casual situations that we use
these expressions and my mom was like so
again this w sound my mom was like this
kind of disappears a little bit we can
also use it in present tense my mom is
like but my mom was like is good for a
clear past tense report okay so we use
the next pair went and go to report
speech very casually so you can see here
there is past tense went present tense
go we use them in the same way again
just as with was all and was like we use
these to communicate direct quotes these
are exact quotes things people actually
said so they went we're leaving so again
we could say they said we're leaving but
using went again has this sort of very
casual maybe gossipy like there's a
little bit of exciting information there
perhaps same thing with go so I go fine
I'm leaving too so we use these two
together in very casual situations that
have kind of a quick conversational feel
about them we can say these things very
quickly in a pair they went we're
leaving so I go fine I'm leaving too
so having this kind of went and go match
together feels very natural I think to
native speakers same thing here she was
all and my mom was like using these
together in the same kind of dialogue
rapport sounds quite natural I think but
generally using a mix of all of these
two rapport statements is a really good
idea if you use the exact same
expression to report report report all
the time it sounds a little bit
unnatural kind of stiff okay so these
are all four statements these are all
four statements let's look at two
patterns for questions now so here I
have the past tense asked and inquired
used here I chose these two just because
asked is kind of the casual or the
everyday verb we can use for questions
inquired just sounds more formal it's a
more formal way of saying asked so some
examples of this are I asked about the
menu and I asked if there were any
vacancies these are two common patterns
I asked about some topic or I asked if
and then there's some kind of inquiry
point here I asked if there were any
vacancies here same thing we can do with
inquired he inquired about the company
so we see the same about two plus a
topic point we can also with the verb
asked use a direct quote too so for
example I asked what are you doing
that's also okay we can use ask with a
direct quote you can also use it with
inquired as well if you like but perhaps
this one is a little bit more useful for
everyday converse
stations and everyday questions so
throughout this lesson I've talked about
using the past tense and the present
tense for reporting but what's the
difference so I want to talk a little
bit about that here to finish that so
past tense and present tense both used
to report speech both fine to report
speech here I've used simple past and
simple present tense you might also hear
progressive tense in the past or in the
present tense but the difference between
them present tense if you use present
tense it feels like the story is
happening now so if I'm using present
tense to report speech and made me to
share the points in the story as well it
sounds like the story is happening now
it's present its present tense it's
happening in the present so if I want my
story to feel kind of lively and more
exciting I can use present tense to tell
my story if however past tense is used
it sounds more like just a simple report
it's like you're just telling facts what
happened
there's not really like a feeling of
excitement necessarily it's just simple
reporting so we see past tense and
simple past tense story reporting in the
news for example so in the news it's
simple reports affect what happened on
that day you'll see simple past tense
used in English news reports so this is
kind of a key difference that you can
think about when you're telling stories
and you're reporting information as well
all right that's everything for this
lesson I hope that it was useful for you
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comments as well thanks very much for
watching this episode and I will see you
again next time bye
you
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