G Indirect speech Page 86 a) Characteristics of indirect speech When you convert direct speech into indirect speech (also called reported speech), be aware of the following changes: • backshift of tenses if the reporting verb is in a tense of the past tense group • adaptation of personal pronouns and possessives to the point of view of the person reporting • adaptation of expressions of time and place to the point of view of the person reporting • changes in sentence type, e.g. question indirect question, imperative infinitive construction b) How to turn direct speech into indirect speech Direct speech Indirect speech present tense past tense “We like the way you handle stress.” The manager told me that they liked the way I handled stress. present perfect past perfect “We’ve been looking for someone like you.” He said they had been looking for someone like me. past tense past perfect “We had a very nice student here, but he left us last week.” He said that they had had a very nice student there, but that he had left them the week before. will would “We’ll pay you ten pounds an hour.” He told me that they would pay me ten pounds an hour. question word question word “When can you start?” He wanted to know when I could start. no question word whether or if “Do you live in the city?” He asked me whether I lived in the city. command (imperative) infinitive with (not) to “Try to get here as early as possible.” “And don’t believe the stories you’ve heard.” He told me to get there as early as possible. And he told me not to believe the stories I had heard. The passive voice Page 103 a) Characteristics of the active and passive voice • Active voice sentences state something about the agent of an action (= who does it): My father takes out the rubbish every day. • Passive voice sentences state something about what happens to a person or thing; the agent is not important: The rubbish is taken out every day. • If you want to include the agent use by: The rubbish is taken out by my father every day. • Passive sentences are formed by using a form of to be + past participle (= third form of the verb). They can be formed in all tenses. • To form negations add not to the form of to be. • To form questions switch the positions of the form of to be and the subject. G 7 G 8 162 Grammar Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv
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