Click here to play!

Reported speech

Click here to play
1 2
   Share on Facebook  
maj  #19370  Thu, 15 Jan 04 06:31 PM
She said: "I am risking everthing I have for you". Can you change this this sentence into reported speech?
  
Top 25 Contributor
Joined on Mon, Mar 31 2003
Senior Member (4,756)
Dima  #19393  Thu, 15 Jan 04 08:22 PM
Hi,
Inorder for you to change this direct quotation into indirect you have to change "I am risking" into past continous, and 'Have' to past tense.
The sentence will be: She said that she was risking everything she had for you.

Dima
  
Not Ranked
Joined on Fri, Jan 2 2004
Lebanon
New Member (15)
suzi  #19399  Thu, 15 Jan 04 09:20 PM
I dont entirely agree .. the verbs "to be and to have" can (should? ) stay in present,
then you get:
"she said that she is risking everything she has for you"
  
Top 150 Contributor
Joined on Wed, Jan 7 2004
Full Member (465)
Proficient Speaker
milky  #19547  Sat, 17 Jan 04 01:20 PM
Who is the "you" in your sentence?

She said that she was risking everything she had for me. (Could be ambiguous out of context. It could mean that she has a lot of investments and the profits of those would go to you later)

She said (that) she was risking everything for me (that) she had.

Generally though, folks will probably understand the intent.

She said (that) she was risking everything she had for me.

She said (that) she is risking everything she has for me.

She says (that) she is risking everything she has for me.
  
Top 50 Contributor
Joined on Thu, Jan 15 2004
Senior Member (3,149)
Hume said that if we had perfect or complete descriptive knowledge of reality, we could not, by reasoning, derive a single valid "ought".
Anonymous  #161838  Wed, 23 Nov 05 04:01 PM

she says,"I will come down as soon as i am ready."

 

  
pieanne  #161854  Wed, 23 Nov 05 04:38 PM

She says she will come down as soon as I/you are ready.

 

  
Top 25 Contributor
Joined on Thu, Jan 20 2005
South of France ...But I'm Belgian!
Veteran Member (7,512)
ModeratorProficient Speaker
I'm glad to help, but I'm not a native! And please excuse my typos...
yunus  #161868  Wed, 23 Nov 05 05:12 PM

it must be; she said that she was risking everything she had for me. because we must do past at reported speech.

but we can use present tense but it likes telling the story . she says " I'm risking everything i have for you" this isn't reported speech.

 

  
Top 500 Contributor
Joined on Sun, Jan 30 2005
İstanbul
Full Member (205)
istanbul
My2sense  #161874  Wed, 23 Nov 05 05:32 PM
 Yunus wrote:

it must be; she said that she was risking everything she had for me. because we must do past at reported speech.

but we can use present tense but it likes telling the story . she says " I'm risking everything i have for you" this isn't reported speech.

 

Indeed  true.

  
Top 500 Contributor
Joined on Sun, Nov 13 2005
europe
Full Member (154)
pieanne  #161881  Wed, 23 Nov 05 05:47 PM

You can also use reported speech when the reporting verb is in the present tense. "Reported speech" is when you report somebody else's words, whatever the the tense of the reporting verb may be.

 

  
1 2
AddThis Feed Button RSS Feed: ESL General English Grammar Questions
© 2008 MediaCET Ltd.
Terms and Conditions