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Message board
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ESL forum >
Message board > Reported speech
Reported speech
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barbarachiote
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Reported speech
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Hi, Guys
Could you help me out, please? I�m having a hard time trying to convert the sentence "Come on! Somebody is following us." to the reported speech, specially because of the expression "come on!". I don�t know what to do with it.
Thanks,
B�rbara
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30 Jul 2012
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robynmgalloway
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my suggestion:
X said that they should hurry up because someone was following them.
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30 Jul 2012
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faby.ong
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You can say huury up because we are being followed by somebody!
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30 Jul 2012
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ueslteacher
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@
faby.ong : that is not a reported sentence which Barbara specifically asked for. Sophia |
30 Jul 2012
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Apodo
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"Come on! Somebody is following us." Reported speech: He said that we should come on because someone was following us. Come on is an expression meaning �hurry up � in this sentence, and this expression doesn �t need to be changed, but it sounds more natural to replace come on with hurry. Compare with: Hurry up! Someone is following us. Reported: He said that we should hurry up because someone was following us. Not all reported speech uses the original words exactly. Clarity of meaning is also important. |
30 Jul 2012
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karito1976
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When we report a command (Come on! Somebody is following us) the reporting verb to be used is "told" and then you have to use the infinitive with "to", so the correct reported speech to your sentence will be:
X told us to come on because somebody was following us.
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31 Jul 2012
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Apodo
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Using told is optional, unless tell was used in the original. |
31 Jul 2012
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yanogator
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I agree with Apodo about "told". karito is somewhat correct, but it isn �t a rule. Also, it �s a little more common to use "told" if the command had the sense of instructions, rather than other kinds of commands.
Turn in your tests now.
He told us to turn in our tests. He said to turn in our tests. (Both are correct and common)
Be careful out there!
He said to be careful out there. or He said that we should be careful out there.
He told us to be careful out there is also correct.
Much of it depends on the reason for the reported speech. Using "said" is more narrative, just reporting the words. Using "told" is more personal, indicating to some extent the purpose of what was said.
Bruce, as usual with more information than you might want. |
31 Jul 2012
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