Reported Speech Statements - ESL worksheet by lolain - Free Printable

The task in the image involves converting direct speech into reported (indirect) speech. In reported speech, the original words of the speaker are changed to reflect that they are being reported by someone else. This often involves adjusting verb tenses, pronouns, and time expressions.

Rules for Converting Direct Speech to Reported Speech:

1. Change the tense of the verb:
- Present tense → Past tense
- Past tense → Past perfect tense
- Future tense → Conditional tense

2. Adjust pronouns as necessary:
- First-person pronouns (I, we) may change depending on the context.
- Second-person pronouns (you) may change to third-person pronouns (he, she, they).

3. Modify time expressions:
- "Now" → "then"
- "Today" → "that day"
- "Tomorrow" → "the next day"
- "Last night" → "the previous night"

4. Remove quotation marks and replace them with a reporting verb like "said," "told," etc.

Solution:

Here is the conversion of each sentence from direct speech to reported speech:

---

1. Direct: ‘I don’t know what he did,’ he said.
Reported: He said that he didn’t know what he had done.

2. Direct: ‘I went to the theatre,’ she said.
Reported: She said that she had gone to the theatre.

3. Direct: ‘I have a terrible headache,’ she told me.
Reported: She told me that she had a terrible headache.

4. Direct: ‘I’ll give you a call when I finish,’ he said.
Reported: He said that he would give me a call when he finished.

5. Direct: ‘We aren’t going to the beach,’ they said.
Reported: They said that they weren’t going to the beach.

6. Direct: ‘The doctor sent me to hospital,’ he said.
Reported: He said that the doctor had sent him to hospital.

7. Direct: ‘I go to the baker’s every day,’ his mum said.
Reported: His mum said that she went to the baker’s every day.

8. Direct: ‘I have received the parcel,’ she said.
Reported: She said that she had received the parcel.

9. Direct: ‘I will buy some popcorn,’ he said.
Reported: He said that he would buy some popcorn.

10. Direct: ‘We are flying to New York next week,’ they said.
Reported: They said that they were flying to New York the following week.

11. Direct: ‘I’m repairing the roof,’ he said.
Reported: He said that he was repairing the roof.

12. Direct: ‘She works in an office,’ he said.
Reported: He said that she worked in an office.

13. Direct: ‘We saw an owl last night,’ the children said.
Reported: The children said that they had seen an owl the previous night.

14. Direct: ‘I’m studying English,’ he told me.
Reported: He told me that he was studying English.

---

Final Answer:

\boxed{
\begin{aligned}
1. & \text{He said that he didn’t know what he had done.} \\
2. & \text{She said that she had gone to the theatre.} \\
3. & \text{She told me that she had a terrible headache.} \\
4. & \text{He said that he would give me a call when he finished.} \\
5. & \text{They said that they weren’t going to the beach.} \\
6. & \text{He said that the doctor had sent him to hospital.} \\
7. & \text{His mum said that she went to the baker’s every day.} \\
8. & \text{She said that she had received the parcel.} \\
9. & \text{He said that he would buy some popcorn.} \\
10. & \text{They said that they were flying to New York the following week.} \\
11. & \text{He said that he was repairing the roof.} \\
12. & \text{He said that she worked in an office.} \\
13. & \text{The children said that they had seen an owl the previous night.} \\
14. & \text{He told me that he was studying English.} \\
\end{aligned}
}