Direct speech: He said to her, ‘Will you be here tomorrow?’ Reported speech: He asked whether she would be there tomorrow.
It was explained in Chapter II that if the reporting clause of direct speech is past tense, the tense and the adverb of time of reported speech will change. In the first
example, now should change into then, while tomorrow in the second example should be the following day or the next day. Therefore, the correct reported speech
for the first example is My mom asked me what I was doing then, and for the second example is He asked whether she would be there the following day.
4. Adverb of Place
In reported speech, the adverb of place here usually becomes there. In the reported speech test, it was found that students made 19 errors of adverbial place
5.37. Example:
Direct speech: He said to her, ‘Will you be here tomorrow?’ Reported speech: He asked her whether she would be here the day after.
The reported speech above is incorrect because the adverbial place here does not change. If the reporting clause of direct speech is past tense, the tense, the adverbial
time, and the adverbial place of reported speech should change since the place the first speaker says is different from that of the second or the third speaker reports the
speech. The correct reported speech should be He asked her whether she would be there the day after
.
5. This and These
This and these in reported speech are called demonstratives. This usually
becomes that and these usually becomes those. There were 10 errors of demonstratives 2.82 found in the test.
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Example: Direct speech: ‘Will you do this for me, Jim?’ Grace said.
Reported speech: Grace asked if I would do this for her. The example above is incorrect because this should change into that. The correct
sentence is Grace asked if he would do that for her.
6. Modal Verb
There was only one error of modal verb 0.28 found in the test, while there was no error of modal auxiliary found in the test.
Example: Direct speech: Mrs. Judy said to me, ‘You should be the first.’
Reported speech: Mrs. Judy suggested that I should have been the first. According to Swan 1995, modal verbs e.g. would, should, could, might, and
ought to usually do not change after past reporting verb in reported speech.
Therefore, the reported speech above is incorrect because should be should not change into should have been. The correct reported speech should be Mrs. Judy
suggested that I should be the first.
7. Word Order
Word order errors found in the test were 14 3.95. Some students had not understood how to change the question form into the statement form. They still made
errors in the word order. Examples:
Direct speech: He said to her, ‘Will you be here tomorrow?’ Reported speech: He asked whether will she be there tomorrow?
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