Prime Time 4, Coursebook

Reporting what someone said in the past Mostly, past tense is used to report a conversation. In this case, the tense of the reported sentence has to change. This is called “backshift” . Present simple  Past simple are  were have/has  had can  could go/goes  went am/is  was do/does  did know/knows  knew … Past simple  Past perfect went  had gone knew  had known Will  Would will go/…  would go/… … Direct speech “I went to the theatre yesterday.” “We are writing a test tomorrow.” “We ’ve never been here before.” “It ’s so quiet here.”     Reported speech Alice said that she had gone to the theatre the day before. He told me that they were writing a test the next day. Bob explained that they had never been there before. She said that it was so quite there. Unit 4 Reporting offers, suggestions and orders We use verbs like “tell”, “want”, “advise”, “allow”, “ask”, “promise” and “warn” to report what someone offers, suggests or orders. We use the structure: verb + object (person/name, me, you, him, her …) + (not) to + base form Direct speech Reported speech “Bring closed shoes.”  She told me to bring closed shoes “I need your report as soon as possible.”  Alsana wanted Joshua to finish the report quickly. “It’s better to try easy tricks first.”  They advise skaters to try easy tricks first. “Do not cross this line!”  The sign doesn’t allow snowboarders to cross the line. “Could you put together the questionnaire?”  Lara has asked Ben to put together a questionnaire. “I could make copies, no problem!”  Ben has promised Lara to make copies of the questionnaire. “Don’t you ever leave during office hours again!”  Sasha warns Gary not to leave during office hours. G3 " p. 27 Alice said that she had gone to the theatre the day before. I went to the theatre yesterday. G4 " p. 33 137 one hundred and thirty-seven Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv