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ESL forum >
Ask for help > reported speech
reported speech
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nhatminh0904
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reported speech
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please tell me if we could write:
She said to me (that) she was a student.
or we have to write:
She told me (that) she was a student.
Can we use "said to somebody" in a reported statement? |
3 Nov 2011
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MoodyMoody
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"Said to" is perfectly fine to my American ears. I won �t speak for colleagues from other countries. And "that" is optional, as you noted. |
3 Nov 2011
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Don1972
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"said to" doesn �t sound right to my Canadian ears. I believe that "told" is better.
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3 Nov 2011
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treasure0911
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I believe "say to" is correct but not spontaneous; I �d rather use told here.
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3 Nov 2011
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tulpen25
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"Said to" doesn �t sound right to my British ears. I �d always go for told. |
3 Nov 2011
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jannabanna
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You can also say: "she said she was a student" but then we don �t know WHO she said it to, but as a native speaker (British) I would say: "she told me she was a student"
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3 Nov 2011
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yanogator
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I agree that "She said to me..." doesn �t sound natural. It is grammatically correct, but not the way we would say it. It works OK in a question: What did she say to you? Oh, she told me (that) she was a student. or What did she say to you? She said that she was a student. Both of these work. Bruce |
3 Nov 2011
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