Reported Speech in English

Reported speech (also known as indirect speech) is used to convey what someone else has said without using their exact words. This grammatical structure involves various changes in tenses, pronouns, and time expressions.

Reported Statements

When reporting statements, the tense of the verb often changes:

Example: Direct Speech: "I'm cleaning my teeth." Reported Speech: He said that he was cleaning his teeth.

Reported Questions

Questions in reported speech are introduced by phrases like "asked if" or "asked" followed by the question word:

Example: Direct Speech: "Are you Polish?" Reported Speech: She asked me if I was Polish.

Tense Changes in Reported Speech

When reporting speech, tenses typically shift backwards in time:

• Present Simple → Past Simple
• Present Perfect → Past Perfect
• Past Simple → Past Perfect
• Present Continuous → Past Continuous
• Future Simple → Conditional
• Past Continuous → Past Perfect Continuous

Highlight: Modal verbs also change in reported speech. For example, "will" becomes "would," and "can" becomes "could."

Time and Place Expressions in Reported Speech

Time and place expressions often change in reported speech:

• now → then
• here → there
• this → that
• today → that day
• tomorrow → the next day
• yesterday → the day before

Reporting Requests and Commands

Requests and commands in reported speech use the infinitive form:

Example: Direct Speech: "Can you repeat the question?" Reported Speech: She asked me to repeat the question.

Example: Direct Speech: "Don't cheat during the exam." Reported Speech: She told us not to cheat during the exam.

Understanding reported speech and strona bierna angielski (passive voice) is crucial for effective communication in English, especially in academic and professional contexts.

Passive Voice in English

The strona bierna angielski (passive voice) is a grammatical structure used to emphasize the action rather than the doer. It's particularly useful when the subject performing the action is unknown or unimportant.

Definition: Passive voice is formed using the appropriate form of "to be" + the past participle (3rd form) of the main verb.

Czasownik w stronie biernej przykłady (Examples of verbs in passive voice):

1. Present Simple: Subject + is/am/are + 3rd form of the verb Example: Flowers are watered every day.

2. Past Simple: Subject + was/were + 3rd form of the verb Example: Flowers were watered yesterday.

3. Future Simple: Subject + will be + 3rd form of the verb Example: Flowers will be watered tomorrow.

4. Present Perfect: Subject + have/has been + 3rd form of the verb Example: Flowers have been watered (and now they won't wilt).

Highlight: When converting from active to passive voice, the object of the active sentence typically becomes the subject of the passive sentence.

Example: Active: Kate broke a vase yesterday. Passive: A vase was broken by Kate yesterday.

Vocabulary: The word "by" is used in passive sentences when we want to emphasize who performed the action.