Now that you know some of the reported speech rules about backshift, let’s learn some exceptions.
There are two situations in which we do NOT need to change the verb tense.
For example, if someone says “I have three children” (direct speech) then we would say “He said he has three children” because the situation continues to be true.
If I tell you “I live in the United States” (direct speech) then you could tell someone else “She said she lives in the United States” (that’s reported speech) because it is still true.
When the situation is still true, then we don’t need to backshift the verb.
He said he HAS three children
But when the situation is NOT still true, then we DO need to backshift the verb.
Imagine your friend says, “I have a headache.”
We also don’t need to backshift to the verb when somebody said something about the future, and the event is still in the future.
Here’s an example:
Let’s look at a different situation:
Quick review:
Those were the rules for reported statements, just regular sentences.
What about reported speech for questions, requests, and orders?
For reported requests, we use “asked (someone) to do something”:
For reported orders, we use “told (someone) to do something:”
The main verb stays in the infinitive with “to”:
For yes/no questions, we use “asked if” and “wanted to know if” in reported speech.
The main verb changes and back shifts according to the rules and exceptions we learned earlier.
Notice that we don’t use do/does/did in the reported question:
For other questions that are not yes/no questions, we use asked/wanted to know (without “if”):
Again, notice that we don’t use do/does/did in reported questions:
Also, in questions with the verb “to be,” the word order changes in the reported question:
Learn more about reported speech:
If you want to take your English grammar to the next level, then my Advanced English Grammar Course is for you! It will help you master the details of the English language, with clear explanations of essential grammar topics, and lots of practice. I hope to see you inside!
I’ve got one last little exercise for you, and that is to write sentences using reported speech. Think about a conversation you’ve had in the past, and write about it – let’s see you put this into practice right away.
About the author.
Shayna Oliveira is the founder of Espresso English, where you can improve your English fast - even if you don’t have much time to study. Millions of students are learning English from her clear, friendly, and practical lessons! Shayna is a CELTA-certified teacher with 10+ years of experience helping English learners become more fluent in her English courses.
Reported speech or indirect speech is the form of speech used to convey what was said by someone at some point of time. This article will help you with all that you need to know about reported speech, its meaning, definition, how and when to use them along with examples. Furthermore, try out the practice questions given to check how far you have understood the topic.
Definition of reported speech, rules to be followed when using reported speech, table 1 – change of pronouns, table 2 – change of adverbs of place and adverbs of time, table 3 – change of tense, table 4 – change of modal verbs, tips to practise reported speech, examples of reported speech, check your understanding of reported speech, frequently asked questions on reported speech in english, what is reported speech.
Reported speech is the form in which one can convey a message said by oneself or someone else, mostly in the past. It can also be said to be the third person view of what someone has said. In this form of speech, you need not use quotation marks as you are not quoting the exact words spoken by the speaker, but just conveying the message.
Now, take a look at the following dictionary definitions for a clearer idea of what it is.
Reported speech, according to the Oxford Learner’s Dictionary, is defined as “a report of what somebody has said that does not use their exact words.” The Collins Dictionary defines reported speech as “speech which tells you what someone said, but does not use the person’s actual words.” According to the Cambridge Dictionary, reported speech is defined as “the act of reporting something that was said, but not using exactly the same words.” The Macmillan Dictionary defines reported speech as “the words that you use to report what someone else has said.”
Reported speech is a little different from direct speech . As it has been discussed already, reported speech is used to tell what someone said and does not use the exact words of the speaker. Take a look at the following rules so that you can make use of reported speech effectively.
Subject said that (report whatever the speaker said) |
As discussed earlier, when transforming a sentence from direct speech into reported speech, you will have to change the pronouns, tense and adverbs of time and place used by the speaker. Let us look at the following tables to see how they work.
I | He, she |
Me | Him, her |
We | They |
Us | Them |
You | He, she, they |
You | Him, her, them |
My | His, her |
Mine | His, hers |
Our | Their |
Ours | Theirs |
Your | His, her, their |
Yours | His, hers, theirs |
This | That |
These | Those |
Here | There |
Now | Then |
Today | That day |
Tomorrow | The next day / The following day |
Yesterday | The previous day |
Tonight | That night |
Last week | The week before |
Next week | The week after |
Last month | The previous month |
Next month | The following month |
Last year | The previous year |
Next year | The following year |
Ago | Before |
Thus | So |
Simple Present Example: Preethi said, “I cook pasta.” | Simple Past Example: Preethi said that she cooked pasta. |
Present Continuous Example: Preethi said, “I am cooking pasta.” | Past Continuous Example: Preethi said that she was cooking pasta. |
Present Perfect Example: Preethi said, “I have cooked pasta.” | Past Perfect Example: Preethi said that she had cooked pasta. |
Present Perfect Example: Preethi said, “I have been cooking pasta.” | Past Perfect Continuous Example: Preethi said that she had been cooking pasta. |
Simple Past Example: Preethi said, “I cooked pasta.” | Past Perfect Example: Preethi said that she had cooked pasta. |
Past Continuous Example: Preethi said, “I was cooking pasta.” | Past Perfect Continuous Example: Preethi said that she had been cooking pasta. |
Past Perfect Example: Preethi said, “I had cooked pasta.” | Past Perfect (No change) Example: Preethi said that she had cooked pasta. |
Past Perfect Continuous Example: Preethi said, “I had been cooking pasta.” | Past Perfect Continuous (No change) Example: Preethi said that she had been cooking pasta. |
Will | Would |
May | Might |
Can | Could |
Shall | Should |
Has/Have | Had |
Here are some tips you can follow to become a pro in using reported speech.
Given below are a few examples to show you how reported speech can be written. Check them out.
Transform the following sentences into reported speech by making the necessary changes.
1. Rachel said, “I have an interview tomorrow.”
2. Mahesh said, “What is he doing?”
3. Sherly said, “My daughter is playing the lead role in the skit.”
4. Dinesh said, “It is a wonderful movie!”
5. Suresh said, “My son is getting married next month.”
6. Preetha said, “Can you please help me with the invitations?”
7. Anna said, “I look forward to meeting you.”
8. The teacher said, “Make sure you complete the homework before tomorrow.”
9. Sylvester said, “I am not going to cry anymore.”
10. Jade said, “My sister is moving to Los Angeles.”
Now, find out if you have answered all of them correctly.
1. Rachel said that she had an interview the next day.
2. Mahesh asked what he was doing.
3. Sherly said that her daughter was playing the lead role in the skit.
4. Dinesh exclaimed that it was a wonderful movie.
5. Suresh said that his son was getting married the following month.
6. Preetha asked if I could help her with the invitations.
7. Anna said that she looked forward to meeting me.
8. The teacher told us to make sure we completed the homework before the next day.
9. Sylvester said that he was not going to cry anymore.
10. Jade said that his sister was moving to Los Angeles.
What is the definition of reported speech.
Reported speech, according to the Oxford Learner’s Dictionary, is defined as “a report of what somebody has said that does not use their exact words.” The Collins Dictionary defines reported speech as “speech which tells you what someone said, but does not use the person’s actual words.” According to the Cambridge Dictionary, reported speech is defined as “the act of reporting something that was said, but not using exactly the same words.” The Macmillan Dictionary defines reported speech as “the words that you use to report what someone else has said.”
You can use the following formula to construct a sentence in the reported speech. Subject said that (report whatever the speaker said)
Given below are a few examples to show you how reported speech can be written.
ENGLISH Related Links | |
Your Mobile number and Email id will not be published. Required fields are marked *
Request OTP on Voice Call
Post My Comment
Register with byju's & watch live videos.
Reported speech, also known as indirect speech, is a way of communicating what someone else has said without quoting their exact words. For example, if your friend said, “ I am going to the store ,” in reported speech, you might convey this as, “ My friend said he was going to the store. ” Reported speech is common in both spoken and written language, especially in storytelling, news reporting, and everyday conversations.
Pronouns are usually changed to match the perspective of the person reporting the speech. For example, “I” in direct speech may become “he” or “she” in reported speech, depending on the context. Here are some example sentences:
Reported speech: tense shifts.
When converting direct speech into reported speech, the verb tense is often shifted back one step in time. This is known as the “backshift” of tenses. It’s essential to adjust the tense to reflect the time elapsed between the original speech and the reporting. Here are some examples to illustrate how different tenses in direct speech are transformed in reported speech:
Reported speech: question format.
When converting questions from direct speech into reported speech, the format changes significantly. Unlike statements, questions require rephrasing into a statement format and often involve the use of introductory verbs like ‘asked’ or ‘inquired’. Here are some examples to demonstrate how questions in direct speech are converted into statements in reported speech:
Reported speech quiz.
Sometimes we may wish to report the words of others. In fact, this is quite a regular occurrence in any language.
There are two ways to do this: reported (indirect) speech, and direct speech.
Here’s how they work.
As the name would suggest, direct speech is when you directly report the words of another person.
“I’ll see you at the meeting on Wednesday,” he said.
Direct speech can always be identified in written speech through the use of speech marks (sometimes known as quotation marks). Please note that single or double marks can be used depending on the habit of the individual user.
Direct speech is the easier of the two options because it does not involve any grammatical or structural changes to the original sentence.
Reported speech involves grammatical, and sometimes structural, changes.
Here is an example of the same sentence as above but this time delivered in reported speech.
“I’ll see you at the meeting on Wednesday,” he said. (direct speech)
He said (that) he would see me at the meeting today. (reported/indirect speech)
Aa can be seen, considerable changes have been made to the original sentence. First of all, the speech marks have been removed. Next, we must consider the verb tense used. Fortunately, the rules covering this are written in stone:
1) Present simple | Past simple |
2) Present Perfect | Past Perfect |
3) Present continuous | Past continuous |
4) Past simple | Past Perfect |
5) Past continuous | Past perfect continuous |
6) Past perfect | Past perfect (no change) |
7) Past perfect continuous | Past perfect continuous (no change) |
8) Future simple (will) | Would |
9) Can | Could |
10)All other Modal Verbs (might/may/could/should/would) | No change |
As can be seen from the above table, the original verb tense must be adapted accordingly. Let us look at the original examples once more:
The verb tense in the original, direct speech sentence (‘will’) has been adapted to ‘would’ as necessary. This reflects the difference in time between when the comment was originally made, and when it was reported.
This fact is made most obviously clear when the present tense is adapted to the past, as follows:
“I want to talk to you,” she said.
She said that she wanted to talk to me.
As is dictated, ‘want’ has become wanted’ because the request is now clearly in the past.
Please note that, on some occasions, adapting the present tense to the past tense may not be necessary. For example:
“I like pizza,” she said.
She said she likes/liked pizza.
Because we can assume the state to still be true, the present tense is also correct in the reported sentence.
Let us look once more at the original pair of sentences:
As well as the verb tense, both the subject and object have been adapted, and so has the time expression.
Of course, these amendments are all relative. Who was talking to who, and what is the time relationship between when the original sentence was communicated, and when it was reported? Always bear in mind these considerations when using reported speech.
Questions are a little bit different, and must be adapted in their own unique way. Generally speaking, there are two types of questions, and each must be considered separately.
The first question is an ‘information’ question, requiring some kind of specific detail in the answer. The second question, meanwhile, is quite simply a ‘yes/no’ question, where detail is optional.
Here are the changes that must be made to each question in reported (indirect) speech
In the ‘information’ question, the original sentence must be restructured so it is now no longer a question, but an affirmative statement. That is because, when reported, it is no longer a question. The verb tense should also be adapted as per the rules with all reported speech transitions.
In the ‘yes/no’ question, the sentence must also be adapted, with the word ‘if’ (or ‘whether’) replacing the auxiliary. Again, the verb tense must be changed accordingly.
In the examples in this article we have included the classic reporting verbs ‘said’ and ‘asked’. ‘Tell’ is another classic.
In truth, these verbs are incredibly uninformative. In reality, they tell us nothing about the emotion or feeling of what was communicated.
Therefore, it is better to run through the many options of reporting verbs we have at our disposal to select an option which best describes the sentiment of the words. Of course, in formal or business English you may want to stay with the neutral words of ‘say’, ‘ask’ and ‘tell’, but to be a little more descriptive, why not check out some of these options:
There are almost countless others. Give your language more color by choosing something more descriptive.
And don’t forget, the Linguix AI-powered writing assistant can provide you not only with the grammatical and structural amendments that you need to be correct in your writing, but can also be used to adapt your style so it is suitable to your audience. Get lists of synonyms to help you identify the perfect word, too.
Learn how to use reported speech in English. Reported speech is also known as indirect speech and is used to tell somebody else what another person said. Using reported speech in English can sometimes be difficult for non-native speakers as we (usually) change the verbs, pronouns and specific times.
Keep reading to understand how to use reported speech and download this free English lesson!
Reported speech vs. direct speech.
When we want to tell somebody else what another person said, we can use either direct speech or reported speech .
When we use d irect speech, we use the same words but use quotation marks, “_”. For example:
Scott said, “I am coming to work. I will be late because there is a lot of traffic now.”
When we use r eported speech, we usually change the verbs, specific times, and pronouns. For example:
Scott said that he was coming to work. He said that he would be late because there was a lot of traffic at that time.
Since reported speech is usually talking about the past, we usually change the verbs into the past. It is always necessary to change the verbs when the action has finished or is untrue.
We do not always change the verbs. When you are reporting an action that is still current or true, it is not necessary to change the verb tense. For example:
How old are you? “ I am twenty-seven years old .” She said she is twenty-seven years old.
We usually follow the rules below. When we are reporting speech, we are usually talking about the past; therefore, we change the verbs into the past.
|
|
“I eat pizza.” | He said (that) he ate pizza. |
“I am eating pizza.” | He said (that) he was eating pizza. |
“I will eat pizza.” | He said (that) he would eat pizza. |
“I am going to eat pizza.” | He said (that) he was going to eat pizza. |
When we are reporting past actions, it is not always necessary to change the verb tense. We can usually leave the verbs in the same tense and just change the pronouns. However, we sometimes need to use the to clarify the time order of events. the never changes in . | |
“I ate pizza.” “I ate pizza, so I am not hungry.” | He said (that) he ate pizza. He said (that) he had eaten pizza, so he wasn’t hungry.” |
“I was eating pizza.” “I was eating pizza when she called.” | He said (that) he was eating pizza. He said (that) he had been eating pizza when she called. |
We use a special form when we report questions:
WH-Questions:
Where is + Tom’s house ? He asked where Tom’s house + was.
Where does Tom live? He asked where Tom lived.
Yes/No Questions:
Does Tom live in Miami? She asked if Tom lived in Miami.
Is Tom happy? She asked if Tom was happy.
Say vs. Tell
Say Something
June: “I love English .”
June said (that) she loved English.
Tell Someone Something
June: “I love English.”
June told me (that) she loved English.
Must, might, could, would, should , and ought to stay the same in re ported s peech . We usually change may to might .
Infinitives stay the same in reported speech:
“ I am going to the store to buy milk.” He said he was going to the store to buy milk.
We also use infinitives when reporting orders and commands, especially when using tell .
“ Do your homework. Don’t use a dictionary!!” He told me to do to my homework and not to use a dictionary.
When we are reporting another speakers suggestions, we can use a special form with suggest, recommend, or propose .
SUGGEST/ RECOMMEND/PROPOSE + (*THAT) + SUBJECT PRONOUN + **V1
SUGGEST/ RECOMMEND/PROPOSE + V1 + ING
“I think you should visit Viscaya.” → He suggested we visit Viscaya. He suggested visiting Viscaya.
“Try to get there early to get good seats.” → He recommended we get there early to get good seats.
*That is often omitted in speech.
**The verb is always in the base form. We do not use third person.
A reported statement begins with an introductory clause and is followed by the ‘information’ clause. The speaker may choose different words, but the meaning remains unchanged. Some formal words to introduce a reported statement or response are: declared, stated, informed, responded, replied, etc.
“I don’t agree with these new rules. I am not going to accept this change!” → He declared that he was in disagreement with the new rules and stated that he would not accept the changes.
Free English Lesson PDF Download
A. Change each direct speech example into the reported speech . The first one has been done for you.
Michelle said that she loved her Chihuahua, Daisy.
2. Republicans said, “We don’t support Obama’s plan to raise taxes.”
__________________________________________________________.
3.With her mouth full, Sarah said, “I am eating mashed potatoes.”
4. John Lee said, “This year, I will not pay my taxes.”
5. Lebron said, “I am going to win the championship next year.”
6. Patty said, “I can’t stomach another hamburger. I ate one yesterday.”
B. Rewrite the sentences/questions below using reported / indirect speech . Always change the tense, even though it is not always necessary. You can use ‘said’, ‘told me’ , or ‘asked’ .
1. Sarah: “I am in the shower right now.”
_____________________________________________________________________________
2. John: “I dropped my son off at school this morning.”
3. Samuel: “I am going to the beach with my sister this afternoon.”
4. John: “Jessica will call you later.”
5. The girls: “Who does John live with?”
6. Our classmate: “Did we have any homework last night?”
7. Sarah: “I am moving to Tokyo because I want to learn Japanese.”
8. John: “Why do you have an umbrella?”
9. The students: “Our teacher can’t find her books anywhere.”
10. Sarah and Jillian: “Is John British?”
11. Steve: “I’m going to the beach so that I can play volleyball.”
__________________________________________________________________________________
12. Ann: “Where is the bathroom?”
13. My parents: “What are you going to do with your life?”
14. Sarah: “I ate breakfast before I came to school.”
C. Your friend Megan is very nosy (she always wants to know what’s going on) so she constantly asks questions about your life and the lives of your friends. Rewrite her questions using the reported questions form. The first one has been done for you .
1. Why do you date Ryan?
She asked me why I dated Ryan.
2. How much money do you make at your new job?
________________________________________________________________________________
3. Does Ryan think I’m pretty?
4. Where is your favorite restaurant?
5. Do I look good in these jeans?
6. Can I borrow some twenty bucks?
D. Your American grandfather is telling you about how things used to be. Using the reported speech , tell your friends what he said.
“In the 1930s, people were very poor. They ate watery soup and hard bread. Many people lost their jobs. To make matters worse, a horrible drought ruined most of the farmland in the American midwest. People went to California to look for a better life. They picked strawberries in the hot California sun.”
Did you download this lesson? If not, don’t forget to download this free English lesson.
If you have any questions about English grammar, please contact us via email us or just comment below. I hope this lesson helped you understand how to use reported speech in English.
Do you need to improve your English? See the locations of our English language schools in the United States.
Proud partners with National Geographic Learning
Cookie | Type | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|---|
ajs_anonymous_id | persistent | 1 year | Description unavailable. |
ajs_group_id | persistent | 1 year | Description unavailable. |
ajs_user_id | persistent | 1 year | Description unavailable. |
centerVisitorId | persistent | 7981 years | Description unavailable. |
fr | persistent | 3 months | Description unavailable. |
hblid | persistent | 2 years | Description unavailable. |
NID | persistent | 6 months | Description unavailable. |
olfsk | persistent | 2 years | Description unavailable. |
test_cookie | persistent | 15 minutes | Description unavailable. |
viewed_cookie_policy | persistent | 1 hour | Description unavailable. |
wcsid | persistent | 1 year | Description unavailable. |
wordpress_test_cookie | persistent | 1 year | Description unavailable. |
_fbp | persistent | 2 hours | Description unavailable. |
_ga | persistent | 2 year | Description unavailable. |
_gat | session | 1 minute | Description unavailable. |
_gid | persistent | 1 day | Description unavailable. |
_hjIncludedInSample | persistent | 1 year | Description unavailable. |
_ok | persistent | 1 year | Description unavailable. |
_okbk | persistent | 1 year | Description unavailable. |
_okdetect | persistent | 1 year | Description unavailable. |
_oklv | persistent | 1 year | Description unavailable. |
__cfduid | persistent | 1 year | Description unavailable. |
How to use reported speech.
If you have a sentence in Direct Speech, try to follow our 5 steps to put the sentence into Reported Speech..
Mind the type of sentences when you use Reported Speech. There is more detailed information on the following pages.
If you use Reported Speech there are mostly two main differences.
The introductory sentence in Reported Speech can be in the Present or in the Past .
If the introductory sentences is in the Simple Present, there is no backshift of tenses.
If there is a pronoun in Direct Speech, it has possibly to be changed in Reported Speech, depending on the siutation.
Here I is changed to she .
If there is backshift of tenses in Reported Speech, the tenses are shifted the following way.
Direct Speech | Reported Speech |
---|---|
Simple forms | |
Simple Present | Simple Past |
Simple Past | Past Perfect |
Present Perfect | |
Past Perfect | |
will | would |
Progressive forms | |
am/are/is | was/were |
was/were | had been |
has been | |
had been |
If there is an expression of time/place in the sentence, it may be changed, depending on the situation.
Direct Speech | Reported Speech |
---|---|
this evening | that evening |
today/this day | that day |
these days | those days |
now | then |
a week ago | a week before |
last weekend | the weekend before / the previous weekend |
next week | the following week |
tomorrow | the next/following day |
here | there |
In some cases backshift of tenses is not necessary, e.g. when statements are still true. Backshift of tenses is never wrong.
when you use general statements.
* The word that is optional, that is the reason why we put it in brackets.
Here's how it works:
We use a reporting verb like 'say' or 'tell'. If this verb is in the present tense, it's easy. We just put 'she says' and then the sentence:
We don't need to change the tense of the verb 'loves', though probably we do need to change the pronoun from 'I' to 'she', for example. We also may need to change words like 'my' and 'your'.
But, if the reporting verb is in the past tense, then usually we change the tenses in the reported speech.
The verb 'love' changes from the present simple to the past simple ('loved'). This change is called 'backshifting'. It's just a grammatical change – we use it even if the thing is still true in real life.
Here are some more examples.
Present simple positive with 'be' ('am / is' change to 'was' and 'are' changes to 'were').
Present simple negative with 'be' ('am not / isn't' change to 'wasn't' and 'aren't' changes to 'weren't').
Present simple positive with verbs that are not 'be' (present simple changes to past simple)
Present simple negative with verbs that are not 'be' ('doesn't / don't' change to 'didn't').
Now let's look at the present continuous. It changes to the past continuous.
The past simple is a little different. You have a choice! You can keep the past simple as the past simple, with no change. Or you can change it to the past perfect.
With the past continuous, we use 'had been + verb-ing'.
With the present perfect, we use 'had + past participle' (the past perfect).
With the past perfect, we don't need to change anything.
With 'will', we change it to 'would'.
This is the same for the future continuous. We just change 'will' to 'would'.
With 'be going to', we use 'was / were going to'.
Perfect english grammar.
In reported statements, we can use either ' say ' or ' tell '. The meaning is the same, but the grammar is different. For example:
With 'tell' we NEED the object (e.g. 'me', 'you', 'her'). With 'say' we CAN'T use the object (e.g. 'me', 'them', 'us').
Learn more about reported speech here.
Hello! I'm Seonaid! I'm here to help you understand grammar and speak correct, fluent English.
Read more about our learning method
Reported speech is how we represent the speech of other people or what we ourselves say. There are two main types of reported speech: direct speech and indirect speech.
Direct speech repeats the exact words the person used, or how we remember their words:
Barbara said, “I didn’t realise it was midnight.”
In indirect speech, the original speaker’s words are changed.
Barbara said she hadn’t realised it was midnight .
In this example, I becomes she and the verb tense reflects the fact that time has passed since the words were spoken: didn’t realise becomes hadn’t realised .
Indirect speech focuses more on the content of what someone said rather than their exact words:
“I’m sorry,” said Mark. (direct)
Mark apologised . (indirect: report of a speech act)
In a similar way, we can report what people wrote or thought:
‘I will love you forever,’ he wrote, and then posted the note through Alice’s door. (direct report of what someone wrote)
He wrote that he would love her forever , and then posted the note through Alice’s door. (indirect report of what someone wrote)
I need a new direction in life , she thought. (direct report of someone’s thoughts)
She thought that she needed a new direction in life . (indirect report of someone’s thoughts)
Reported speech: direct speech
Reported speech: indirect speech
Speech reports consist of two parts: the reporting clause and the reported clause. The reporting clause includes a verb such as say, tell, ask, reply, shout , usually in the past simple, and the reported clause includes what the original speaker said.
reporting clause | reported clause |
, | |
, | |
me |
Direct speech.
In direct speech we usually put a comma between the reporting clause and the reported clause. The words of the original speaker are enclosed in inverted commas, either single (‘…’) or double (“…”). If the reported clause comes first, we put the comma inside the inverted commas:
“ I couldn’t sleep last night, ” he said.
Rita said, ‘ I don’t need you any more. ’
If the direct speech is a question or exclamation, we use a question mark or exclamation mark, not a comma:
‘Is there a reason for this ? ’ she asked.
“I hate you ! ” he shouted.
We sometimes use a colon (:) between the reporting clause and the reported clause when the reporting clause is first:
The officer replied: ‘It is not possible to see the General. He’s busy.’
Punctuation
In indirect speech it is more common for the reporting clause to come first. When the reporting clause is first, we don’t put a comma between the reporting clause and the reported clause. When the reporting clause comes after the reported clause, we use a comma to separate the two parts:
She told me they had left her without any money.
Not: She told me, they had left her without any money .
Nobody had gone in or out during the previous hour, he informed us.
We don’t use question marks or exclamation marks in indirect reports of questions and exclamations:
He asked me why I was so upset.
Not: He asked me why I was so upset?
Say and tell.
We can use say and tell to report statements in direct speech, but say is more common. We don’t always mention the person being spoken to with say , but if we do mention them, we use a prepositional phrase with to ( to me, to Lorna ):
‘I’ll give you a ring tomorrow,’ she said .
‘Try to stay calm,’ she said to us in a low voice.
Not: ‘Try to stay calm,’ she said us in a low voice .
With tell , we always mention the person being spoken to; we use an indirect object (underlined):
‘Enjoy yourselves,’ he told them .
Not: ‘Enjoy yourselves,’ he told .
In indirect speech, say and tell are both common as reporting verbs. We don’t use an indirect object with say , but we always use an indirect object (underlined) with tell :
He said he was moving to New Zealand.
Not: He said me he was moving to New Zealand .
He told me he was moving to New Zealand.
Not: He told he was moving to New Zealand .
We use say , but not tell , to report questions:
‘Are you going now?’ she said .
Not: ‘Are you going now?’ she told me .
We use say , not tell , to report greetings, congratulations and other wishes:
‘Happy birthday!’ she said .
Not: Happy birthday!’ she told me .
Everyone said good luck to me as I went into the interview.
Not: Everyone told me good luck …
Say or tell ?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| (= ) |
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
The reporting verbs in this list are more common in indirect reports, in both speaking and writing:
Simon admitted that he had forgotten to email Andrea.
Louis always maintains that there is royal blood in his family.
The builder pointed out that the roof was in very poor condition.
Most of the verbs in the list are used in direct speech reports in written texts such as novels and newspaper reports. In ordinary conversation, we don’t use them in direct speech. The reporting clause usually comes second, but can sometimes come first:
‘Who is that person?’ she asked .
‘It was my fault,’ he confessed .
‘There is no cause for alarm,’ the Minister insisted .
Verb patterns: verb + that -clause
Word of the Day
microbusiness
Your browser doesn't support HTML5 audio
a very small company, especially a family-owned company employing only a few people
Fakes and forgeries (Things that are not what they seem to be)
To add ${headword} to a word list please sign up or log in.
Add ${headword} to one of your lists below, or create a new one.
{{message}}
Something went wrong.
There was a problem sending your report.
WASHINGTON — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was released from a British prison and on his way to a remote Pacific island on Tuesday where he will plead guilty to a conspiracy charge as part of a plea deal with the U.S. Justice Department, according to court documents .
The agreement will free Assange and end the yearslong legal battle over the publication of a trove of classified documents.
Assange was charged by criminal information — which typically signifies a plea deal — with conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defense information, the court documents said.
Wikileaks posted footage to X of Assange boarding a plane at Stanstead Airport near London at 5 p.m. (12 p.m. ET) on Monday.
A letter from Justice Department official Matthew McKenzie said Assange would appear in court in the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S.-controlled territory north of Guam, at 9 a.m. local time Wednesday (7 p.m. ET Tuesday) to plead guilty.
A plane believed to be carrying Assange landed early Tuesday in the Thai capital Bangkok to refuel. He will later arrive for what could be a final court hearing after spending five years in a British jail.
The islands are 3,400 miles north of Australia, Assange's country of citizenship, where the Justice Department expects he will return following the proceedings.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said that "the case has dragged on for too long, there is nothing to be gained by his continued incarceration and we want him brought home to Australia."
Assange's mother, Christine Assange, said in a statement widely reported by Australian media: "I am grateful that my son’s ordeal is finally coming to an end. This shows the importance and power of quiet diplomacy."
His wife, Stella Assange, is currently in Australia with the couple's two children, aged 5 and 7, waiting for his arrival, she told BBC Radio 4. "He will be a free man once it is signed off by a judge," she said, adding that she wasn't sure the deal would happen until the last 24 hours.
She said she was "elated."
Stella Assange, a lawyer, also told the Reuters news agency that she would seek a pardon on her husband's behalf. She said that accepting a guilty plea on an espionage charge created a "very serious concern" for journalists across the world.
U.S. charges against Assange stem from one of the largest publications of classified information in American history, which took place during President Barack Obama's first term.
Starting in late 2009, according to the government, Assange conspired with Chelsea Manning , a military intelligence analyst, to use his WikiLeaks website to disclose tens of thousands of activity reports about the war in Afghanistan, hundreds of thousands of reports about the war in Iraq, hundreds of thousands of State Department cables and assessment briefs of detainees at the U.S. detention camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
Court documents revealing Assange's plea deal were filed Monday evening in U.S. District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands. Assange was expected to appear in that court and to be sentenced to 62 months, with credit for time served in British prison, meaning he would be free to return to Australia, where he was born.
“This was an independent decision made by the Department of Justice and there was no White House involvement in the plea deal decision,” National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a statement Monday evening.
Assange has been held in the high-security Belmarsh Prison in east London for five years, and he previously spent seven years in self-exile at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London — where he reportedly fathered two children — until his asylum was withdrawn and he was forcibly carried out of the embassy and arrested in April 2019.
A superseding indictment was returned more than five years ago, in May 2019, and a second superseding indictment was returned in June 2020 .
Assange has been fighting extradition for more than a decade: first in connection with a sex crimes case in Sweden that was eventually dropped, then in connection with the case against him in the United States.
In March, the High Court in London gave him permission for a full hearing on his appeal as he sought assurances that he could rely upon the First Amendment at a trial in the U.S. In May, two judges on the High Court said he could have a full hearing on whether he would be discriminated against in the U.S. because he is a foreign national. A hearing on the issue of Assange's free speech rights had been scheduled for July 9-10 .
WikiLeaks also published hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee that upended the 2016 presidential race. Russian intelligence officers were subsequently indicted in connection with the hacking in 2018 in a case brought by then-special counsel Robert Mueller.
At a joint news conference with then-President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin days later, Trump contradicted the indictment and the intelligence community, saying Putin was " extremely strong and powerful in his denial " that Russians interfered in the 2016 election to help him win.
Manning was sentenced to 35 years in a military prison, but Obama commuted her sentence in the final days of his presidency in 2017. Manning was subsequently held in contempt of court for nearly a year after she refused to answer questions for a grand jury; she was then released after an attempted suicide .
If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or chat live at 988lifeline.org . You can also visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for additional support.
Michael Kosnar and Ryan J. Reilly reported from Washington, and Patrick Smith from London.
Michael Kosnar is a Justice Department producer for the NBC News Washington Bureau.
Ryan J. Reilly is a justice reporter for NBC News.
Patrick Smith is a London-based editor and reporter for NBC News Digital.
President Joe Biden is taking an expansive election year step to offer relief to potentially hundreds of thousands of immigrants without legal status in the U.S.
President Joe Biden has ordered an expansive election-year step to offer relief to potentially hundreds of thousands of immigrants who don’t have legal status in the U.S. but are married to American citizens.
President Joe Biden has ordered an expansive election year step to offer relief to potentially hundreds of thousands of immigrants without legal status in the U.S. (AP video by Jae Hong and Melissa Perez Winder)
President Joe Biden turns to the others on the dais after speaking during an event marking the 12th anniversary of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, June 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
Javier Quiroz Castro gives a hug to President Joe Biden after introducing him at an event marking the 12th anniversary of the Deferred Action of Childhood Arrivals program, in the East Room of the White House, Tuesday, June 18, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
President Joe Biden speaks during an event marking the 12th anniversary of the Deferred Action of Childhood Arrivals program, in the East Room of the White House, Tuesday, June 18, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
First lady Jill Biden speaks during an event marking the 12th anniversary of the Deferred Action of Childhood Arrivals program, in the East Room of the White House, Tuesday, June 18, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Javier Quiroz Castro smiles after introducing President Joe Biden at an event marking the 12th anniversary of the Deferred Action of Childhood Arrivals program, in the East Room of the White House, Tuesday, June 18, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
President Joe Biden listens as he meets with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in the Oval Office at the White House, Monday, June 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden ordered expansive election-year action Tuesday to offer potential citizenship to hundreds of thousands of immigrants without legal status in the U.S., aiming to balance his recent aggressive crackdown on the southern border that enraged advocates and many Democratic lawmakers.
The president announced that his administration will, in the coming months, allow certain U.S. citizens’ spouses without legal status to apply for permanent residency and eventually citizenship without having to first depart the country. The action by Biden, a Democrat, could affect upwards of half a million immigrants, according to senior administration officials.
“The Statue of Liberty is not some relic of American history. It still stands for who we are,” Biden said from a crowded East Room at the White House, filled with advocates, congressional Democrats and immigrants who would be eligible for the program. “But I also refuse to believe that for us to continue to be America that embraces immigration, we have to give up securing our border. They’re false choices.”
Biden’s action, which amounts to the most expansive federal protection for immigrants in over a decade, sets up a significant political contrast with presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, whose hardline stance on immigration includes a push for mass deportations and rhetoric casting migrants as dangerous criminals “poisoning the blood” of America.
On Tuesday, Biden accused “my predecessor” of preying on fears about immigrants as he chastised Trump administration moves, such as a zero-tolerance policy at the southern border that led to the separation of families. But Trump has leaned into his own policies as Biden has faced disapproval of his handling of immigration throughout his presidency. At a rally in Racine, Wisconsin, on Tuesday, Trump proclaimed, “When I’m reelected, Joe Biden’s illegal amnesty plan will be ripped up and thrown out on the very first day that we’re back in office.”
Because the shadow of a second Trump administration looms over Biden’s new policy, Tuesday’s actions will set off a months-long sprint by Latino organizations to get as many people to apply for the program as possible before next January.
To qualify for Biden’s actions, an immigrant must have lived in the United States for 10 years and be married to a U.S. citizen, both as of Monday. If a qualifying immigrant’s application is approved, he or she would have three years to apply for a green card and receive a temporary work permit and be shielded from deportation in the meantime.
About 50,000 noncitizen children with parents who are married to U.S. citizen could also potentially qualify for the process, according to senior administration officials who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity. There is no requirement on how long the couple must have been married, but no one becomes eligible after Monday. That means immigrants who reach that 10-year mark after Monday will not qualify for the program, according to the officials.
Senior administration officials said they anticipate the process will be open for applications by the end of the summer. Fees to apply have yet to be determined.
Biden formally unveiled his plans at a Tuesday event at the White House , which also marked the 12th anniversary of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, a popular Obama-era directive that offered deportation protections and temporary work permits for young immigrants who lack legal status.
The announcement was welcome news to families with mixed immigration status, such as Antonio and Brenda Valle in Los Angeles. They have been married for nearly 12 years and have two sons who are U.S. citizens, but they have lived with the worry every two years that Brenda Valle’s status as a DACA recipient will not be renewed.
“We can start planning more long-term, for the future, instead of what we can do for the next two years,” she said.
Foday Turay was among those invited to the White House Tuesday for the announcement. He came to the U.S. when he was 10 years old from Sierra Leone, and is now a father to a young son and married to a third-generation U.S. citizen. Although he’s enrolled in DACA and working as an assistant district attorney in Philadelphia, his status doesn’t provide relief from the constant worry of deportation.
“My wife is tremendously impacted by this,” Turay said Tuesday before the ceremony. “You know, every day she talks to me about what’s going to happen. What if I get deported? You know, how are we going to raise our son? What country are we going to raise him?”
Republicans were making their own sharp contrasts with Biden’s plan. In a likely preview of GOP campaign ads, Rep. Richard Hudson, chair of House Republicans’ campaign arm, called the Biden policy a “mass amnesty plan.” Other Republicans, such as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, anticipated that this latest directive would be struck down by the courts.
Sen. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican who is under consideration to be Trump’s pick for vice president, forcefully advocated for legislation in 2012 that would have offered legal status to young immigrants, but on Tuesday he said “the world is different” now because immigration numbers have risen.
Tuesday’s announcement came two weeks after Biden unveiled a sweeping crackdown at the U.S.-Mexico border that effectively halted asylum claims for those arriving between officially designated ports of entry. Immigrant-rights groups have sued the Biden administration over that directive, which a senior administration official said Monday had led to fewer border encounters between ports.
Biden’s allies believe that the approach he is taking with his twin actions on immigration this month will resonate with voters.
“The only party that is being serious about border security is the Democrats. The only party that’s being thoughtful and compassionate about what to do with people who are living in the shadows are the Democrats,” said Sen. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat who helped author a bipartisan border bill earlier this year. “The Republican Party has decided to take a walk on border security.”
Among advocates, Gustavo Torres, the executive director of CASA, said Biden’s announcement would energize Latino communities to get out and support him.
“This is what our communities have needed to rally behind President Biden for reelection,” he said.
Biden also announced new regulations that will allow certain DACA beneficiaries and other young immigrants to more easily qualify for long-established work visas. That would allow qualifying immigrants to have protection that is sturdier than the work permits offered by DACA, which is currently facing legal challenges and is no longer taking new applications.
The power that Biden is invoking with his Tuesday announcement for spouses is not a novel one. The policy would expand on authority used by Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama to allow “parole in place” for family members of military members, said Andrea Flores, a former policy adviser in the Obama and Biden administrations who is now a vice president at FWD.us, an immigration advocacy organization.
The parole-in-place process allows qualifying immigrants to get on the path to U.S. permanent residency without leaving the country, removing a common barrier for those without legal status but married to Americans. Flores called it “the biggest win for the immigrant rights movement since the announcement of DACA 12 years ago.”
The same progressives who were infuriated with Biden’s asylum order praised the president on Tuesday. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., who leads the Congressional Progressive Caucus, commended Biden and said the actions would help keep American families together.
“Many Americans would be shocked to hear that when a U.S. citizen marries an undocumented person, their spouse is not automatically eligible for citizenship,” she said. ”Imagine loving someone, marrying them, and then still continuing to fear you would be separated from them.”
Associated Press writers Christine Fernando in Racine, Wis., Valerie Gonzalez in McAllen, Texas, and Stefanie Dazio in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
In a 6-3 ruling, the majority said the challengers did not have legal grounds — or standing — to bring the case against the Biden administration.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected a Republican-led effort to sharply restrict White House officials and other federal employees from pressuring social media companies to remove posts from their platforms that the U.S. government deems problematic, saying the challengers did not have legal standing to bring the case.
State leaders in Missouri and Louisiana, in addition to individual social media users, filed a lawsuit accusing the Biden administration of violating the First Amendment by operating a sprawling federal “censorship enterprise” to improperly influence platforms to modify or take down posts related to public health and elections.
In a 6-3 ruling , the court said the states and individuals could not show they were directly harmed by the communication between federal officials and social media platforms.
Joined the majority
Decision author
LIBERAL BLOC
CONSERVATIVE BLOC
Writing for the majority, Justice Amy Coney Barrett said companies such as Facebook and YouTube have long-standing content-moderation policies that place warning labels on certain posts and delete others. The challengers, Barrett wrote, did not demonstrate that the companies’ actions to remove posts were traceable to the government.
Barrett said a lower court got it wrong when it “glossed over complexities in the evidence” by attributing to the Biden administration every company decision to remove or moderate content.
“While the record reflects that the Government defendants played a role in at least some of the platforms’ moderation choices, the evidence indicates that the platforms had independent incentives to moderate content and often exercised their own judgment,” she wrote.
Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr, joined by Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil M. Gorsuch, dissented.
Alito criticized his colleagues in the majority for failing to address the underlying free-speech questions at issue in the case, calling efforts by the government to police content it sees as problematic a form of “coercion.”
The court “shirks that duty and thus permits the successful campaign of coercion in this case to stand as an attractive model for future officials who want to control what the people say, hear and think,” Alito wrote. “That is regrettable.”
The case, known as Murthy v. Missouri, gave the Supreme Court an opportunity to shape how government officials interact with social media companies and communicate with the public online. The dispute is one of several before the justices this term that tests Republican-backed claims that social media companies are working with Democratic allies to silence conservative voices.
Wednesday’s ruling could have implications for the U.S. government’s efforts to combat foreign disinformation during a critical election year when nearly half of the world’s population will go to the polls. The U.S. government largely halted its warnings to U.S. tech companies about foreign influence campaigns last year, after lower-court decisions that placed broad limits on such communications. As the 2024 presidential elections approach, the FBI has resumed some limited communications with the companies, according to people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal affairs.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the court’s ruling ensures the administration can engage with social media and other tech companies on topics including terrorism threats, foreign influence campaigns, online harassment and mental health of children.
“Going forward, we will not back down from our consistent view that, while social media companies make independent decisions about the information they present, those companies have a critical responsibility to take into account the effects their platforms are having on the American people and the security of this nation,” she said in a written statement.
But Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, said the justices missed an opportunity to give clear guidance to tech companies and the federal government about how the First Amendment should apply to social media. Jaffer said the court needs to clarify how the line should be drawn between “legitimate government persuasion” and “illegal government coercion.”
“Government officials are going to be operating in a kind of gray area,” said Jaffer, whose organization filed a brief in the case in support of neither party. “There are dangers in both directions, that’s why we needed guidance from the Supreme Court.”
The ruling is a blow to a wide-ranging conservative legal campaign , which alleges that the federal government and tech companies have colluded to censor Republican views online. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), the chair of the House Judiciary Committee, has been running a parallel investigation in Congress, probing the interactions among tech companies, the federal government and researchers. He said in a statement he disagreed with the court’s ruling and plans to continue with his investigation.
“The First Amendment is first for a reason, and the freedom of expression should be protected from any infringement by the government,” Jordan said in a statement. “Our important work will continue.”
The litigation and the congressional investigations have already throttled a host of efforts to study misinformation online, with researchers saying the probes have exposed them to increased legal costs and personal attacks. The Stanford Internet Observatory, one of the most prominent institutions tracking online falsehoods, collapsed this month after the university incurred millions of dollars in legal fees related to the investigations and lawsuits. The Election Integrity Partnership, which the observatory operated in conjunction with the University of Washington, announced that it would not continue its work tracking voter suppression and election denial in the 2024 race or future elections. Federal agencies have also pulled back. Last year, the National Institutes of Health froze a $150 million program intended to advance the communication of medical information, citing regulatory and legal threats.
Democrats, who say the government must be able to work with the private sector to keep dangerous false information from reaching the public, called on Jordan to halt his investigation in response to the Supreme Court’s findings.
“I hope that after this humiliating defeat Chairman Jordan and his colleagues will end their failed investigation into the companies, universities, and individuals who have been trying to stop the spread of harmful misinformation and disinformation on social media,” said Jerry Nadler, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee.
The First Amendment prevents the government from censoring speech and punishing people for expressing different views. But the Biden administration told the court that officials are entitled to share information, participate in public debate and urge action, as long as their requests to remove content are not accompanied by threats.
Top industry groups representing major social media companies, including NetChoice and Chamber of Progress, praised the Supreme Court for recognizing that the platforms have their own incentives to moderate content that are not necessarily influenced by the government.
“What we see in this decision is that the court actually understands how content moderation works,” said Jess Miers, senior legal advocacy counsel for Chamber of Progress, an industry coalition that includes Google, Meta and other companies.
“Platforms have an important reason to seek information from actors like the CDC or national security leaders, but at the end of the day, their content moderation decisions and platform policies are their own,” she said, referring to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana had argued that the federal government coerced social media companies to suppress speech of individual users and became too deeply involved in the companies’ decisions to remove certain content. Tech companies, they said, cannot act on behalf of the government to remove speech the government doesn’t like.
The record before the Supreme Court in Murthy v. Missouri included email messages between Biden administration officials and social media companies, including Facebook’s parent company, Meta, and Twitter. Those messages showed tense conversations in 2021 as the White House and public health officials campaigned for Americans to get coronavirus vaccinations.
On Wednesday, lawyers representing the individuals behind the lawsuit criticized the court for determining “against all evidence that the Federal Government will not be held accountable for the natural consequences of its speech squelching actions.”
“The Government can press third parties to silence you, but the Supreme Court will not find you have standing to complain about it absent them referring to you by name apparently,” John Vecchione, senior litigation counsel to the New Civil Liberties Alliance, said in a statement.
The justices were reviewing lower-court decisions that strictly limited federal employees from communicating with tech giants to remove harmful posts or misinformation. A district court judge in Louisiana ruled against the Biden administration and barred thousands of federal employees from improperly influencing tech companies to remove certain content.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit narrowed that decision to a smaller set of government officials and agencies, including the surgeon general’s office, the White House, the CDC and the FBI. A three-judge panel of the appeals court found that the White House “significantly encouraged the platforms’ decisions by commandeering their decision-making processes, both in violation of the First Amendment.”
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey (R) said in a news release that he would continue the litigation in the lower courts and that his office is “evaluating all other options” to address allegations of censorship.
“My rallying cry to disappointed Americans is this: Missouri is not done. We are going back to the district court to obtain more discovery in order to root out Joe Biden’s vast censorship enterprise once and for all,” Bailey said.
Joseph Menn and Tyler Pager contributed to this report.
Advertisement
Mr. Trump said his suggestion to Dana White, who runs the Ultimate Fighting Championship, was not well received. But, he added, “It’s not the worst idea I’ve ever had.”
By Chris Cameron
Former President Donald J. Trump said in an address to an evangelical group that he had suggested starting a sports league for migrants to fight one another.
Appearing at the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s conference in Washington on Saturday, Mr. Trump described migrants with the dehumanizing terms he often uses to refer to them, saying they were “tough,” “come from prisons” and are “nasty, mean.”
Mr. Trump then said that he had suggested to Dana White, an ally of the former president’s who is the chief executive of the Ultimate Fighting Championship , “Why don’t you set up a migrant league of fighters?”
He continued, referring to the U.F.C.: “And then you have the champion of your league — these are the greatest fighters in the world — fight the champion of the migrants? I think the migrant guy might win! That’s how tough they are.”
Mr. Trump said that Mr. White “didn’t like the idea too much.” But, he added, “It’s not the worst idea I’ve ever had. These are tough people.”
Mr. White, asked about Mr. Trump’s comment at a U.F.C. event on Saturday, confirmed that the former president had made the proposal, but said, “It was a joke, it was a joke. I saw everybody going crazy online. But yeah, he did say it.”
The Biden campaign denounced Mr. Trump’s comments, attacking what it called “a rambling, confused tirade,” at what it said was intended to be “a conference for Christian values.”
“Trump’s incoherent, unhinged tirade showed voters in his own words that he is a threat to our freedoms and is too dangerous to be let anywhere near the White House again,” Sarafina Chitika, a spokeswoman for the Biden campaign, said in a statement.
Mr. Trump has made immigration a central part of his platform in the 2024 presidential election, as it was in his two previous campaigns. He has pledged to carry out sweeping raids and to use military funds to erect camps to hold undocumented detainees. He has also escalated his rhetoric against migrants, at times using language that invokes the racial hatred of Hitler by describing migrants as “poisoning the blood of our country.”
“Fantasies about cage matches are a distraction from the very real plans Trump and his team are making to deport millions of people who have lived here for decades and the resulting inflation, joblessness and economic devastation,” said Douglas G. Rivlin, a spokesman for America’s Voice, an immigrant-rights advocacy group that has been tracking the escalation of Republican rhetoric on the issue. “Republican politicians are going to find that hard to defend while campaigning this year.”
Jazmine Ulloa contributed reporting.
Chris Cameron covers politics for The Times, focusing on breaking news and the 2024 campaign. More about Chris Cameron
IMAGES
VIDEO
COMMENTS
Reported speech: She said she was going to the store then. In this example, the pronoun "I" is changed to "she" and the adverb "now" is changed to "then.". 2. Change the tense: In reported speech, you usually need to change the tense of the verb to reflect the change from direct to indirect speech. Here's an example:
Watch my reported speech video: Here's how it works: We use a 'reporting verb' like 'say' or 'tell'. ( Click here for more about using 'say' and 'tell' .) If this verb is in the present tense, it's easy. We just put 'she says' and then the sentence: Direct speech: I like ice cream. Reported speech: She says (that) she likes ice cream.
For example: Direct speech: I dislike fried chicken. Reported speech: She said she disliked fried chicken. Note how the main verb in the reported statement is also in the past tense verb form. Use the simple present tense in your indirect speech if the initial words remain relevant at the time of reporting.
Reported speech: indirect speech - English Grammar Today - a reference to written and spoken English grammar and usage - Cambridge Dictionary
Therefore, you need to learn how to transform direct speech into reported speech. The structure is a little different depending on whether you want to transform a statement, question or request. Statements. When transforming statements, check whether you have to change: pronouns; present tense verbs (3rd person singular)
Introduction. In English grammar, we use reported speech to say what another person has said. We can use their exact words with quotation marks, this is known as direct speech, or we can use indirect speech.In indirect speech, we change the tense and pronouns to show that some time has passed.Indirect speech is often introduced by a reporting verb or phrase such as ones below.
Reported speech: He asked if he would see me later. In the direct speech example you can see the modal verb 'will' being used to ask a question. Notice how in reported speech the modal verb 'will' and the reporting verb 'ask' are both written in the past tense. So, 'will' becomes 'would' and 'ask' becomes 'asked'.
When we use reported speech, we often change the verb tense backwards in time. This can be called "backshift.". Here are some examples in different verb tenses: "I want to go home.". She said she wanted to go home. "I 'm reading a good book.". She said she was reading a good book. "I ate pasta for dinner last night.".
Reported speech is the form in which one can convey a message said by oneself or someone else, mostly in the past. It can also be said to be the third person view of what someone has said. In this form of speech, you need not use quotation marks as you are not quoting the exact words spoken by the speaker, but just conveying the message. Q2.
Direct: "I will help you," she promised. Reported: She promised that she would help me. Direct: "You should study harder," he advised. Reported: He advised that I should study harder. Direct: "I didn't take your book," he denied. Reported: He denied taking my book. Direct: "Let's go to the cinema," she suggested.
Direct speech is the easier of the two options because it does not involve any grammatical or structural changes to the original sentence. Reported (indirect) speech. Reported speech involves grammatical, and sometimes structural, changes. Here is an example of the same sentence as above but this time delivered in reported speech.
Learn the proper use of reported speech (also called indirect speech), a... Billy TOLD ME that you wanted to learn this, so I responded with this grammar video! Learn the proper use of reported ...
Using the reported speech, tell your friends what he said. "In the 1930s, people were very poor. They ate watery soup and hard bread. Many people lost their jobs. To make matters worse, a horrible drought ruined most of the farmland in the American midwest. People went to California to look for a better life.
Reported Speech → Susan said (that)* she worked in an office. Here I is changed to she. 4. Backshift of tenses. If there is backshift of tenses in Reported Speech, the tenses are shifted the following way. Direct Speech → Peter, " I work in the garden." Reported Speech → Peter said (that)* he work ed in the garden.
Learn to use reported speech and direct speech correctly in English with this lesson and quiz! 📝 *GET THE FREE LESSON PDF* _here_ 👉🏼 https://bit.ly/PDFRe...
We just put 'she says' and then the sentence: Direct speech: "I love coffee." Reported speech: She says that she loves coffee. We don't need to change the tense of the verb 'loves', though probably we do need to change the pronoun from 'I' to 'she', for example. We also may need to change words like 'my' and 'your'.
Learn English Grammar with BBC Learning English! Have you ever wanted to tell someone about what someone else has said to you? Learn about how you can do thi...
In reported statements, we can use either 'say' or 'tell'. The meaning is the same, but the grammar is different. The meaning is the same, but the grammar is different. For example:
Reported speech - English Grammar Today - a reference to written and spoken English grammar and usage - Cambridge Dictionary
A hearing on the issue of Assange's free speech rights had been scheduled for July 9-10. WikiLeaks also published hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee that upended the 2016 ...
Former President Donald Trump, in keeping with his preference for shunning traditional debate prep, spent his last Saturday before his first one-on-one showdown with President Joe Biden on the ...
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden ordered expansive election-year action Tuesday to offer potential citizenship to hundreds of thousands of immigrants without legal status in the U.S., aiming to balance his recent aggressive crackdown on the southern border that enraged advocates and many Democratic lawmakers. The president announced that his administration will, in the coming months ...
Since Jones is the owner of Free Speech Systems, a court appointed trustee was put in charge of the company. The trustee wrote on Sunday that since being appointed, he "began planning to wind-up ...
Alito says court is ignoring threats to free speech Justice Samel Alito, joined by Justice Clarence Thomas and Justice Neil Gorsuch, wrote a dissent that dubbed the case "one of the most ...
The First Amendment prevents the government from censoring speech and punishing people for expressing different views. But the Biden administration told the court that officials are entitled to ...
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) said Sunday that Democrats planning to boycott or protest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech to Congress next month will still maintain "decorum.". Why it matters: It comes as Democrats are discussing a variety of ways to not only sit out Netanyahu's speech but counter-program it, as Axios reported on Friday. ...
Last month, the jury found the pair guilty of concealing the birth of a child and perverting the course of justice, but the verdicts could not be reported until now.
In this video, you will learn about what reported speech means, about the types pf specch [ direct and indirect speech], and about the changes made when cha...
Instead of reaching toward Mr. Latimer's supporters at the party's center, Mr. Bowman, 48, embraced the left-leaning positions that helped make him a national figure.
Mr. Trump said that Mr. White "didn't like the idea too much." But, he added, "It's not the worst idea I've ever had. These are tough people."