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Verbs and tenses

• 1 Verbs and tenses
• 2 Lesson Share: Reported speech 1 – article
• 3 Past perfect aspect – article
• 4 Past perfect aspect – tips and activities
• 5 Present perfect aspect – article
• 6 Present perfect aspect – tips and activities
• 7 Reported speech – tips and activities
• 8 Reported speech 2 – article
• 9 The passive in English – article
• 10 The passive in English – tips and activities
• 11 Modal verbs 1 – article
• 12 Modal verbs 1 – tips and activities
• 13 Modal verbs 2 – article
• 14 Modal verbs 2 – tips and activities

Reported speech – tips and activities

By Kerry G. Maxwell and Lindsay Clandfield

• No comments

Tips and ideas from Kerry Maxwell and Lindsay Clandfield on teaching reported speech.

Introduction

Reported speech is a very rich grammar area to teach because:

• It can involve considerable manipulation of form.
• It’s a very easy piece of grammar to locate and exploit with texts.

The activities here are divided into different kinds of drill, ways of exploiting texts and analysis.

Activity: Basic substitution

At it’s most basic, you can simply read out a sentence and ask the students to rephrase it beginning with He said …/She said…  For example:

• T: I don’t like it.
• Ss: He said he didn’t like it.
• T: I hate it.
• Ss: He said he hated it.

This can be made a little more interesting in the following ways:

Activity: Chain reports

Version 1 The following activity is a variation of the well-known 'broken telephone'. Whisper a sentence in English to a student. That student then whispers it to another and so on until the last student has to say aloud what was said originally.

Version 2 If the above seems too easy, ask students to alternate reported speech/direct speech. If they hear it in reported speech they put it back to direct speech and vice versa. For example:

• T: I like it.
• S1: He said he liked it.
• S2: I like it.

Activity: I didn't get that. What did she say?

This is a quick question drill. Ask a student a question. After they answer, ask another student what was said. For example:

• T: Tomas, how did you get to class today?
• S1: I came by car.
• T: Sorry, I didn’t get that. Yvonne, what did Tomas say?
• S2: He said he had come by car.

Activity: Mingle

Prepare a series of cards/slips of paper, each with a different sentence. Here are some examples:

Remember me? We met at last year’s party.

Create enough cards so that each student has one. You can repeat the same sentences on other cards.

Explain that you want the students to role-play the following situation. They are all at a very formal cocktail party. Everybody must circulate and talk to each other. The trick is they must say what is on their card and as little else as possible. If you have a CD player or cassette player in the classroom, you could play some quiet music in the background during the mingle.

After five minutes (or however long it takes for most students to have spoken to each other) tell everyone to sit down again. Ask people to report back on what other people told them, using reported speech.

Activity: Text clarifications

This is another teacher-led activity that also focuses on listening skills. It uses an oral text generated by the teacher. For this activity you need to prepare the following:

• a short anecdote (2 minutes long) related to the topic that you are already doing in class (e.g. if you are doing holidays, make it about holidays);
• four or five sentences that contradict things in your anecdote.

Write the sentences on the board. Read them out to the students. Now explain that you are going to tell a story, but that some of the facts in the story are different. The students must listen carefully. When they hear a fact that is different from those on the board, someone must interrupt you and seek clarification, using the following structure:

Excuse me, but didn’t you say that …? (include what you had said earlier, the facts that are on the board).

Here is an example: T writes on the board:

• I live in a big house.
• I’m married.
• I don’t have any children.

The teacher reads out the sentences and then she gives the instructions for the activity. She begins the story:

• T: Well, the other day I was in my flat. It’s a small flat in the city centre …
• S: Excuse me, didn’t you say you lived in a big house?
• T: Ah yes, I did say that. So, it was in my big house. My boyfriend was at work …
• S: Excuse me, didn’t you say you were married?
• T: Of course. I’m married, I meant to say my husband was at work and the baby was crying …
• S: Excuse me, didn’t you say you didn’t have any children?
• T: That’s right. It isn’t my baby, it’s my sister’s baby.

Activity: Reported interviews

For this activity, search around the internet for an interview. This kind of activity works best if the interviewee is someone that your class is interested in, or at least someone they have heard about.

• Select some of the interview from the webpage and paste into a word document. Make copies for every two students in the class. In class, divide the students into pairs.
• Distribute the interview and ask them to work together and make a reported version it.
• Give them a word limit (150 words). When they have finished their draft report, have them swap reports with another pair. Ask them to reduce the report now to 100 words. Circulate and help.

Activity: Reporting back – famous interviews

In this activity, students create the interview themselves. Divide students into groups. Tell the groups that they must do the following:

• Decide on a famous person (living or dead) who they would like to interview.
• Nominate ONE person in that group to be the famous person.
• Once groups have nominated their famous people ask those people to come up to the front and form a new group.
• Explain that the famous people are all on a panel to be interviewed by the class, who are journalists.
• Give the journalists some time to think of questions. During this time the famous people can talk about what they are going to say.
• When the journalists are ready, begin moderating the interview by asking for questions.
• Once all the famous people have answered the questions send them back to their original seats.
• Now ask everybody to write a report with at least two things they remember from the interview. They should include examples of reported speech in their report. Ask students to compare their reports in pairs.
• Circulate and help. At the end, ask different pairs to read out their reports.

Activity: The news

Prepare for this activity by going to a news website and looking around for short news stories with examples of reported speech. Don’t worry about not finding any, there are usually lots.

• Select examples of these texts and create a small worksheet. First, ask students to read the excerpts and tick the stories they already know about.
• Then ask them to speculate as what the direct speech was. Tell them to write in direct speech the reported speech. They can add more detail if they like.
• At the end, have different students read their quotes and ask the others if they can see what story it came from.

Activity: Shades of meaning 1

The choice of whether or not to 'backshift' the tenses in reported speech often has to do with the reporter’s interpretation. You can ask students to compare the meanings between two examples of reported speech (minimal pair sentences).

For example:

See the section on tense choices in reported and reporting clauses for further examples that you could use and explanation of the differences in meaning.

Activity: Shades of meaning 2

You can also do the above exercise with examples from the news stories. Give the example and ask students to speculate why the tense was chosen. For example:

Why not … that Madonna owed them …?

Activity: What I think and don't think

This activity is a dictation activity. Prepare some sentences that are opinions on a certain topic that you’ve covered recently in class. There should be a mixture of affirmative and negative sentences. Here are some examples on the topic of ART for an intermediate class (some of these are stronger opinions – you may want to change them to reflect your own opinion).

• A lot of modern art isn’t very good.
• Art galleries are great places for conversation.
• There aren’t many famous painters from my country.
• Graffiti isn’t art.
• Art shouldn’t be only for rich people.
• Some art is worth far too much money.

Explain that you are going to dictate these sentences, but that the students must write down a report of each one beginning with The teacher thinks  … or The teacher doesn’t think … (see grammar explanation on negatives in reporting for when to use which stem). The above sentences would give the following:

The teacher thinks art galleries are great places for conversation.

Ask students to compare their answers in pairs, and then decide if they agree or disagree with you. Ask different groups to report back and have a short open class discussion.

Activity: Reacting to the news

Prepare a series of slips of paper each with a sentence beginning You’ve been asked to… or You’ve been told to… Prepare a mixture of good and bad things. For example:

• You’ve been asked to work next Saturday morning.
• You’ve been told to not drink any more wine.
• You’ve been asked to present an award at a film festival.
• You’ve been told to go the principal’s office.
• You’ve been asked to participate in a television show.
• You’ve been told to stay in bed for three weeks.

Pre-teach common social expressions for reacting to good or bad news, for example:

• That’s great!
• Congratulations!
• That’s good news
• That’s too bad.
• Oh dear. Oh no.
• That’s terrible!

Distribute the slips of paper to the students and ask them to read them silently. Then tell them to move around the class and 1) tell other students what they’ve been asked or told to do. 2) react to what other students tell them.

As a follow-up, you could ask them to work in groups and transcribe what they think was probably originally said.

Activity: Conspiracy theories

Prepare a small handout with the following 'claims' on it.

Elvis lives? It’s claimed that the singer Elvis is still alive today.

Think of four or five other conspiracy claims that you could add (you can add local ones too). Include one or two which are more 'believable' than the others (maybe even true ones). Write them in a similar style (i.e. headline, then the sentence stem It is claimed/said/believed that … ). Make one copy of this handout for every three or four students in the class.

Divide students into groups and give each group a card. They must read the card and then assign a score (0 to 5) to each theory 0 = we don’t believe this at all to 5 = we believe this is true . Do some feedback at the end, then collect the handouts. Ask students to try and rewrite from memory what the theories were, paying attention to the reporting structure.

Activity: Drill sergeant

This is another simple drill for reporting orders. Explain that you are going to be a drill sergeant: you are going to give four different students orders and then ask someone to report back what was said. Give short simple orders to different students in a brisk, sergeant-like voice. For example:

• Put down your pen!
• Listen to me!
• Pick up your bag!
• Answer your mobile phone!

The students must carry out the orders. Once you’ve given orders to four students, ask a fifth: What did I just say? The fifth student must report the orders (e.g. You told Maria to put down her pen, you told Giovanni to listen to you. ). If they can do it correctly, they become the drill sergeant.

This is a drill but with a role play element (that of being the sergeant) – to make the role even more effective you could use a prop, like a ruler or some kind of stick to wave around. You then give the prop to the next drill sergeant. Make sure nobody gets hit with the prop though!

Activity: things I was asked/told to do

To provide more practice in reporting structures with ask/tell, ask students to make a list of things they were asked or told to do in different situations. For example:

• when they were a child
• when they first started learning English
• in their first job
• on their first day at school/university

Tell students to compare with each other once they have written their lists. Then ask different students to report back.

Activity: Survivors mingle

This is a group role play, where students imagine that they have survived a plane accident and are stranded on a desert island. Prepare a series of cards/slips of paper, each with a different suggestion for the situation. Here are some examples:

• We should just wait for someone to come and find us.
• Why don’t we explore the island?
• Let’s get wood for a fire.
• We should all stay together. There are dangerous animals around here.
• I think you and I should try to escape together.
• Let’s build a boat.
• We should try and fix the plane.

(you can make your own. Begin with Why don’t we… Let’s …. We should…) Create enough cards so that each student has one. You can repeat the same sentences on other cards.

Explain that you want the students to role play the situation described above (to make it more 'real' you could elaborate on the story of how they got there). Everybody must circulate and talk to each other. They must say what is on their card and as little else as possible.

After five minutes (or however long it takes for most students to have spoken to each other) tell everyone to sit down again. Ask people to report back on what other people told them, using one of the following reporting verbs: suggest, advise or recommend .

Here is a variation which lets the students choose more of the language. Set up the scene, then give the students the sentence stems: Why don’t we … Let’s …. We should … and ask them to write a suggestion. Give them one of the above as an example. Then continue the activity.

Activity: Election pledges

To practise the structures following verbs like promise and offer , you can ask students to imagine they are speechwriters for a candidate for President or Prime Minister of their country. They must prepare a very short speech. You could give them the following outline to help:

• I know that …
• So I promise to … and to …
• If we are elected, my government pledges* to …
• My opponent has promised to …
• But we all know that …
• Together we can …

* pre-teach pledge – it has the same reporting structure as promise, or offer

Students can write this in groups. Then have different students read out their election speeches. Who is the most convincing?

• British English
• Reference Material
• Reported speech

Lesson Share: Reported speech 1 – article

Past perfect aspect – article

Past perfect aspect – tips and activities

Present perfect aspect – article, present perfect aspect – tips and activities.

Reported speech 2 – article

The passive in english – article, the passive in english – tips and activities, modal verbs 1 – article, modal verbs 1 – tips and activities, modal verbs 2 – article, modal verbs 2 – tips and activities, related articles.

Articles, tips and activities on teaching adjectives, from our panel of expert authors.

An article by Kerry Maxwell and Lindsay Clandfield on approaches to teaching reported speech.

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Nouns and phrases

Our experts provide a compendium of tips and ideas for teaching nouns, prepositions and relative clauses in English.

Tips and ideas from Kerry Maxwell and Lindsay Clandfield on teaching the passive in English.

An article by Kerry Maxwell and Lindsay Clandfield on approaches to teaching the passive in English.

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• Direct Speech And Indirect Speech Resources And Worksheets Ks2

Direct speech and indirect speech – 9 of the best resources and worksheets for KS2 SPaG

Help children know when and how to use speech marks in direct speech, and why not to use them in indirect speech, with these lessons, activities, worksheets and more for Key Stage 2 grammar…

What is direct speech?

Direct speech in writing is where you are writing down a direct quotation of someone’s actual words, and these are marked by inverted commas eg “I’ll meet you at the library tomorrow morning,” Sharon said.

What is indirect speech?

Indirect speech (or reported speech), on the other hand, is where you are given a rough approximation of what someone said, not their exact words, and doesn’t require quotation/speech marks, eg ‘Sharon told them she’d see them in the library tomorrow.’

What are inverted commas?

Inverted commas go before and after direct speech, surrounding what was said.

Direct speech examples

• “I’m tired,” she yawned.
• “What’s that sound?” he asked. “It’s coming from under the floorboards!” Elle replied.
• The police officer shouted, “There they are!”

Indirect speech examples

• Mrs Weismann asked you to go see her in her office.
• My dad told me to clear up my room.
• Jerry said he found the book out in the playground.

1 | Getting speech punctuation right at KS2 guide

Perfectly punctuating dialogue is something that can trip up even experienced editors – but this quick guide should help pupils get it right, from the start.

Read it here.

2 | Punctuating direct speech resource pack

This powerful KS2 grammar resources pack provides everything you need to teach a series of five lessons on punctuating direct speech, culminating in an extended writing task where children can use their grammatical understanding in context.

Get this resource pack here.

3 | Direct speech challenge worksheets

Similarly, this bright, appealing grammar worksheet is an excellent way to practise and revise using direct speech in Year 4.

It is divided into five sections: understand, challenge, test, explain and apply.

Activities include SATs style questions and opportunities for creative writing responses, with eye-catching images as prompts.

Find this one here.

4 | Learn speech conventions through knock, knock jokes worksheet

This resource sheet from Rachel Clarke uses a small-steps approach to slowly scaffold children through the rules and conventions of dialogue. In the first instance pupils are simply asked to rewrite knock, knock jokes in speech bubbles.

Once they’ve got the hang of this, they should then be encouraged to write the name of the speaker and ‘said’ before each speech bubble. The second level asks pupils write each line of the knock, knock joke using inverted commas.

Each example on this sheet starts with the reporting clause before the dialogue, which enables pupils to practise adding a comma after the reporting clause.

Download it here.

5 | Speech marks washing line

This handy idea was created by Clarice Morley, an English teacher in a Pupil Referral Unit, who found her boys were struggling with the use of speech marks.

They invented three characters – male, female and a rabbit – and produced some labels such as “Rory exclaimed” and “Brenda whispered”. Clarice then stretched a washing line across the board, and had two pegs with the speech marks on.

The boys would write something someone would say onto a piece of paper, then they matched one of the labels with one of their speeches, and hung the speech on the washing line.

They soon grasped it is only the reported speech that hangs on the line, and the pegs (speech marks) keep it in place.

Print out the worksheet for this resource here.

6 | How to use inverted commas video guide

For a nice little introduction or recap to inverted commas, watch this video of Mr Thorne take you through their uses.

It’s clearly explained with large captions across the bottom so that children can see his examples written out with the correct punctuation.

7 | Speech mark rules

There are many “rules” of speech marks, but no definitive list, and you don’t want to overwhelm children with too many while they’re just learning.

So this Rising Stars list of five rules is a nice size for children to read and take in.

Check it out here.

8 | Quotation marks worksheet

This two-page worksheet has six tasks and an extension all revolving around punctuating speech.

So it starts with putting speech marks into sentences, then putting speech marks and all other punctuation, before building up to punctuating longer passages.

Print it here.

9 | Inverted commas worksheet set

This resource set has three parts. One is ‘Witch and Tiger Conversation’, which shows ten pictures with blank speech bubbles. Children choose names for the witch and the tiger, then create the contents of the conversation.

Next they re-write this conversation in the form of a story by adding phrases such as ‘said Tom’ and ‘asked Joe’ as well as speech marks and other punctuation.

The second and third parts are ‘Missing Speech Marks’ worksheets, where children need to add speech marks to sentences.

Get all this here.

Browse more  SPaG games .

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Year 4 Direct and Reported Speech - KS2 Grammar Worksheets

Resource Collection SPaG Gym

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Practise and revise identifying and using direct and reported speech with this bright, appealing PDF grammar worksheet. Pupils will have the opportunity to rehearse various speech rules in KS2 when punctuating direct speech. Activities include test-style questions and opportunities for creative writing responses, with eye-catching images as prompts. This primary resource is divided into five sections: Understand Match the direct and reported speech Challenge Rewrite the reported speech as direct speech Test Identify direct and reported speech and punctuate direct speech correctly Explain Explain the difference between direct and reported speech Apply Write a short newspaper article that contains direct and reported speech

What is direct speech ?

Direct speech writes exactly what a person says, punctuated using inverted commas and other speech punctuation.

For example:

‘Everyone must follow the rules,’ explained Roger.

What is reported speech?

Reported speech states what someone said without necessarily reporting their actual words. For example: Roger explained that the rules must be followed by everyone. National Curriculum English programme of study links

Pupils should be taught to use and punctuate direct speech

This resource is part of the SPaG Gym collection. View more from this collection

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Ks2 comprehension – classic literature…, ks1 and ks2 writing templates for…, year 1 home learning pack (1), year 6 spelling revision – ks2…, look inside.

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What are direct and indirect speech?

Contents:  Direct speech explanation  Indirect speech explanation  When do children learn about direct speech?  When do children learn about indirect speech?  Examples of questions your child may be asked FAQS  

What is direct speech?

Direct speech is a sentence in which the exact words spoken are reproduced in speech marks (also known as quotation marks or inverted commas). For example:  

What is indirect speech?

Indirect speech is when the general points of what someone has said are reported, without actually writing the speech out in full. It is sometimes called reported speech. For example:  

When do children learn about direct speech?

Teachers will start to teach children how to set out direct speech in Year 3 . The general rules of direct speech are:  

• Each new character's speech starts on a new line.
• Speech is opened with speech marks.
• Each line of speech starts with a capital.
• The line of speech ends with a comma, exclamation mark or question mark.
• A reporting clause is used at the end ( said Jane, shouted Paul, replied Mum).
• A full stop goes after the reporting clause.
• If the direct speech in the sentence is broken up by information about who is speaking, add in a comma or question mark or exclamation mark to end the first piece of speech and a full stop or another comma before the second piece (before the speech marks), for example: "It's lovely," she sighed, "but I can't afford it right now." / "I agree!" said Kate. "Let's go!"

When do children learn about indirect speech?

In Year 5, children may be taught a literacy unit that guides them in writing a newspaper article including the use of indirect (or reported) speech. In Year 6, children may be encouraged to use indirect speech when writing a biography or practising further journalistic writing. When changing direct speech into indirect speech, changes have to be made to a sentence. For example:

• Verb tenses usually shift back a tense (into the past)
• Word order often needs to change
• Pronouns often need to change
• Words indicating place and time need to change

By Year 6 children should be setting out speech and punctuating it correctly in their stories. In fiction indirect speech can sometimes be helpful if a character in a story wants to recount a conversation they have had in the past. For direct and indirect speech worksheets and activities to help your child put the theory into practice look through our punctuation worksheets.  

Examples of questions your child may be asked at school

Here are some examples of questions about direct and indirect speech that primary school children may be asked:

Direct speech:

• "What did Sarah say when she found the lost puppy?"
• "Can you write down exactly what Tom shouted when he scored the winning goal?"
• "How would you quote what Mom said when she saw the messy room?"

Indirect speech:

• "Can you tell me what Sarah said when she found the lost puppy?"
• "Could you write what Tom shouted when he scored the winning goal without using his exact words?"
• "What did Mom say when she saw the messy room? Can you rewrite it using indirect speech?"

FAQs about direct and indirect speech

Here are five frequently asked questions (FAQs) about direct and indirect speech:

Q: What is direct speech?

A: Direct speech is when you quote someone's exact words within quotation marks. For example, "I love chocolate," said Sarah.

Q: What is indirect speech?

A: Indirect speech is when you report what someone said without quoting their exact words. It often involves changing the tense, pronouns, and other details. For example, Sarah said that she loved chocolate.

Q: How do you punctuate direct speech?

A: Direct speech is typically enclosed in quotation marks and followed by a comma or a punctuation mark within the quotation marks. For example, "I'm going to the park," said Tom.

Q: When do we use direct speech?

A: Direct speech is used when you want to convey someone's exact words, often to add authenticity or to quote someone in writing or dialogue.

Q: How do you change direct speech to indirect speech?

A: To change direct speech to indirect speech, you often need to adjust the tense, pronouns, and other details to make it grammatically correct within the context of the reporting sentence. For example, "I'll see you tomorrow," said John (direct speech) can be changed to John said that he would see me the next day (indirect speech).

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Direct or reported? – types of speech

A written task to help children understand the difference between direct and reported speech. Children look at an example of each and analyse their features. They then rewrite reported speech as direct speech in a sentence, and vice versa.

A useful resource for sharpening dialogue writing skills in KS2.

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Lesson details

Key learning points.

• In this lesson, we will explore the differences between direct and reported speech. We will identify the main features and practise writing and punctuating our own speech sentences.

This content is made available by Oak National Academy Limited and its partners and licensed under Oak’s terms & conditions (Collection 1), except where otherwise stated.

Lesson appears in

Unit english / journalistic writing - based on traditional tales.

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Reported Speech: Newspapers

Subject: English

Age range: 11-14

Resource type: Worksheet/Activity

Last updated

7 February 2015

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