Reporting statements

We usually use the conjunction ‘that’ to report statements. The most common verbs used to report statements are ‘said’ and ‘told’.

An example is given below.

• The teacher said to me, ‘I have never seen a boy as lazy as you are.’

When we report this statement, we connect the two clauses using that.

• The teacher told me that he had never seen a boy as lazy as I was.

Exercise

Report the following statements.

1. Susie said to her friend Maria, ‘I don’t like your hairstyle.’

2. ‘I am going to the market,’ said Martin.

3. John said, ‘If my father gives me permission, I will go to America.’

4. ‘If you want to buy this dress, I can lend you some money,’ Maya told her friend Aswathi.

5. ‘I will show you how to do it,’ the father told his son.

6. ‘I want to see it before I buy it,’ he will tell us.

7. ‘No one can say what will happen next,’ the speaker said.

8. ‘I saw this book on your table yesterday,’ Mary told James.

Answers

1. Susie told her friend Maria that she didn’t like her hairstyle.

2. Martin said that he was going to the market.

3. John said that if his father gave him permission, he would go to America.

4. Maya told her friend Aswathi that if she wanted to buy that dress, she could lend her some money.

5. The father told his son that he would show him how to do it.

6. He will tell us that he wants to see it before he buys it.

7. The speaker said that no one could say what would happen thereafter.

8. Mary told James that she had seen that book on his table the day before.