Grammar: Reporting Commands

 

Online Learning Materials

Academic Session-2077

Grade:10

English

 

Unit 4

Reporting Commands

Day 19

Grammar Task: A

Lesson: 19                                                                                                 Time: 50 Minutes

Full Marks: 15                                                                                          Pass Mark: 06

Please note that all the tasks and items prepared below are authentic materials and will be used as they are in your terminal, Pre SEE and SEE Preparation Examinations. You are therefore required to sincerely complete these tasks on a daily basis. Parents are kindly advised to be observant and with their children monitoring and supervising their studies and most of these contents contain a number of materials on the internet, especially YouTube. Just make sure that they do not get digitally distracted.

1.      Scene Setting

Go through the given checklist and see how differently you attempt to comprehend the text below.

Additional Resources

1. Changing Direct Speech into Indirect Speech

While changing sentences from direct speech to indirect speech, we need to follow some rules. These rules are different for different types of sentences. We normally have to make the following types of changes while changing sentences form direct into indirect:

1. Change of reporting verb

2. Change of tense

3. Change of persons

4. Change of adverbials

We have to change the reporting verb, tenses, persons and adverbials to make clear who reported the speech and when and where it was reported.

Look at the sentence:

Tanka said to me, "I have no money."

"I didn't eat food", said Tara

 

R. S. R.V.

The verb followed by the speaker is called a reporting verb (RV) and the speaker's saying which is inside the inverted commas is called reported speech (RS). Remember if the reporting verb is in the past tense, we have to change the tense and adverbials of the reported speech. If the reporting verb is in the present and future tense, tenses, and adverbials of the reported speech are not changed.

A. Change of reporting verb

The reporting verb say or said in the direct speech can be replaced with other verbs in indirect speech. The following is a list of verbs that can be used to replace reporting verbs in indirect speech forms:

1. Told
2. Suggest
3. Asked
4.  exclaimed with: joy/ sorrow/pain,
5. argued
6.  acknowledge
7.  advised
8.  enquired
9.  appreciation
10.  expressed
11. comment
12.  allowed
13.  questioned
14.  mentioned
15. declare
16.  commanded
17. wanted to know
18. promised
19.  explain
20.  forbade
21.  wondered
22.  blessed
23.  replied
24.  insist
25.  instructed
26. demanded
27.  cried out
28.  requested
29.  report
30.  ordered
31.  wished
32.  pleaded
33.  prayed
34.  reminded
35.  urged
36.  warned
37.  begged

B. Change of personal pronouns

Study the following examples carefully to understand how the pronouns change.

1. Direct: Jack said, "I am in the kitchen."

®    Indirect: Jack said that he was in the kitchen.

 

2. Direct: Nikita said to me, "Please help me."

®    Indirect: Nikita requested for help.

 

3. Direct: Anu said to me, " You are a very helpful person."

®    Indirect: Anu told me that I was a very helpful person.

 

4. Direct: Manoj says, "She never helps me."

®    Indirect: Manoj says that she never helps him.

 

The personal pronouns are changed as follows:

· First person changes according to subject of the reporting verb.

· Second person changes according to object of the reporting verb.

· Third person remains unchanged.

 

C. Change of tense

We need to change the tense if the reporting verb is in the past tense. The tense of the

reported speech changes into corresponding past tense as follows:

Direct speech                                                                                           Indirect speech

1.       Simple present "I prefer coffee to tea.", she said.   ® Simple past She said that she preferred coffee to tea.

2.       Present continuous I said to her, "You are doing

 well."® Past continuous I told her that she was doing well.

 

3.       Present perfect Krishna said to me, "I have made a plan." ® Past perfect Krishna told me that he had made a plan.

 

4.       Present perfect continuous Sudha said to us, "I have been waiting for you." ®

 

5.       Past perfect continuous Sudha told us that she had been waiting for us.

 

Simple past Raju said to me, "I didn't like her."

® Past perfect Raju told me that he hadn't liked her.

 

 Past continuous My father told me, ' I was doing my best."

 ®Past perfect continuous My father told me that he had been doing his best.

 

Past perfect She said to him, "I had prepared food."

 ® Past perfect She said to him, "I had prepared food." No change in tense

 

Past Perfect Continuous She told him that she had been preparing food. ……………

 

No change in tense. She told him that she had been preparing food.

 

All future

We said to her, "We will help you."

 My sister said to me, "I will have returned by 8."

 Sonu said to him, "I would finish it."

We told her we would help her.

My sister told me that she would have returned by 8.

Sonu told him that she would finish  it.

 

Also practise this.

Task I. Sentences that express commands Report these sentences using a suitable pronoun and a reporting verb listed above.    [10]

 

1.      Go to the library. ®……………………………………………………………………..

 

2.      Please, come here. ®…………………………………………………………………….

 

3.      Please, sit down. ®……………………………………………………………………….

 

4.      Please, speak up. ®……………………………………………………………………….

 

5.      Turn on page 67. ®……………………………………………………………………….

 

6.      Keep quiet. ®……………………………………………………………………………..

 

7.      Share your ideas to your friends. ®………………………………………………………

 

8.      Finish your homework. ®………………………………………………………………...

 

9.      Brush your teeth twice a day. ®…………………………………………………………..

 

10. Help yourself with the food. ®…………………………………………………………….

 

 

Task II. Report the following sentences that express exclamation.  [10]

 

1.      Wow, what a beautiful house! ®…………………………………………………………….

 

2.      How nice! ®………………………………………………………………………………….

 

3.      That’s great! ®………………………………………………………………………….…….

 

4.      That’s wonderful! ®……………………………………………………………………..…….

 

5.      How pretty! ®………………………………………………………………………....………

 

6.      What a cute baby! ®…………………………………………………………………………..

 

7.      What a day! ®………………………………………………………………………..……….

 

8.      Yuk, disgusting! ®……………………………………………………………………..……..

 

9.      That is really horrible! ®……………………………………………………………..……….

 

10. Hurray, we won the match! ®…………………………………………………………….……

 

· Do not change the tense if the reporting verb is in the present tense or in the future tense, or if the original statement is about something that is still true. For example:

Direct speech Indirect speech

1.      She said to me, "The sun gives heat."® She told me that the sun gives heat.

 

2.      Shashi said to him, "I never drink tea." ®Shashi told him that she never drinks tea.

 

3.      He said to us, “The earth rotates the sun.” ® He told us that the earth rotates the sun.

 

4.      The teacher will tell us, "I will help you." ®The teacher will tell us that he will help us.

 

5.      He says, "I'm a brave boy." ®He says that he is a brave boy.

 

· These modal verbs do not change in reported speech: might, could, would, should, ought to e.g.

1.      We said, "It could be difficult to find our house."

®    We said that it could be difficult to find our house.

 

2.      She said, "I might bring a friend to the party."

®    She said that she might bring a friend to the party.

 

D. Change of adverbials

Words that refer to time, place and position are also changed in reported speech. Study the sentences in direct and their corresponding indirect versions in the following table.

 

 See how the adverbials have changed in the following statements and their reported forms.

1.      "I will see you here tomorrow", she said.

®    She said that she would see me there the next day.

 

2.      "I saw him today", she said.

®    She said that she had seen him that day.

 

3.      "I saw him yesterday", she said.

®    She said that she had seen him the day before.

 

4.      "I met her the day before yesterday", he said.

®    He said that he had met her two days before.

 

5.      "I'll see you tomorrow", said he.

®    He said that he would see me the next day.

 

6.      "We'll come the day after tomorrow", they said.

®    They said that they would come in two days’ time/ two days later.

 

7.      "I have an appointment next week", she said.

8.      She said that she had an appointment the following week.

 

9.      "I was on holiday last week", he told us.

®    He told us that he had been on holiday the previous week.

 

10.  "I saw her a week ago," he said.

®    He said he had seen her a week before

 

11.  "I'm getting a new bike this week", she said.

®    She said she was getting a new bike that week

 

12.  "Do you like this pant?" he asked.

®    He asked if I liked that pant.

 

13.  He said, "I work here".

®    He said that he worked there.

 

Adverbs and adverbial phrases and modal verbs of time change as follows:

SN	Direct	Indirect
1	now	then
2	today	that day
3	tonight	that night
4	yesterday	the day before
5	the day before yesterday	two days before
6	this week	that week
7	tomorrow	the next day/the following day
8	the day after tomorrow	in two days’ time
9	five years ago	five years before
10	next week/year etc.	the following week/year etc.
11	a year etc. ago	a year before/the previous year
12	last week/year etc.	the previous week/year etc.
13	here	there
14	in this city	in that city
15	this place	that place
16	last	previous
17	will/shall	would
18	can	could
19	may	might
20	Ought to	Ought to/had to
21	should	should
22	must	must*/had to

(Credit Source: CDC Manual, GON)

 

Useful Link

1.       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcnVMh0tR9w                      [ < 9 minutes ]

 

Use a separate Notebook for all your tasks or A4 size paper well-maintained in a portfolio/file in the same order for submission and evaluation later.

Unit 4: The End

Compiled, Edited and Prepared by Jaya Narayan Bhusal

Department of English