Search results for 'tag:Present simple tag:Direct speech' matching tags 'Present simple' and 'Direct speech'

Re: grammar check!

AlpheccaStars — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 17:03:57 GMT

Ellisa:

This is a very long passage, and your other post seems to be even longer.

The editor at this web site makes it difficult to make corrections to long passages. Also, many teachers do not want to devote a long time working on a single post. If you post only one paragraph at a time, then different teachers can work on them and you will get your corrections faster.

Ellisa

Hello teachers!
I'm summarising a book which is about teaching methods.
I guess there are millions of errors.
Please ~~check those to right one~~ suggest corrections to my sentences.!
Thanks in advance!

13. Teaching grammar

There are two main ways to teach~~ing~~ grammar.(or you can say "ways of teaching grammar". The word "teaching" is a gerund, and must be used as a noun. In this example, it is object of the preposition "of")
One way is ~~both~~ planning grammar teaching in advance and relying on the coursebooks which can help us teach grammar. The other way is teaching grammar as a result of other work. In other words, it is ~~has~~ done as a peripheral activity. In this chapter, we will look at the various different ways to teach grammar. We will look at the range of activities which satisfy not merely efficiency but also ~~appropriacy~~ (not a word; you can use the adjective forms - a range of activities which are efficient as well as appropriate). . Lastly, we will discuss grammar books and their usages.

(You need to be consistent in using imperative versus declarative sentences)

A. Introducing grammar

The following ~~1 to 4~~ examples (, numbered 1 to 4,) are activities which represent a range of possibilities for introducing new grammar.

Ex1) It's making sentences using the present simple in the third singular. First, the teacher holds up a number of flashcards which are about a specific job. Then (? subject - the students )make sentences in ~~contained~~ present simple tense for ~~the~~ each pictures. It consists (or The exercise consists of) of three affirmative and three negative sentences. Then (? subject - the teacher )makes the students guess what kind of job it is. Once students are confident in ~~with~~ these sentences, the teacher asks them to think of one profession and make 6 sentences. Now, they can do activities guessing what profession is being described.

Ex2) It's using texts which contained (present tense) what the students are being taught (past simple irregular verbs). While the students read the text, they come across blanks that they must fill in with the past tense form of certain verbs. Then, (? subject - the teacher )makes them write these past tense verb forms down in the blanks and also write them phonetically using ~~which are shown~~ ~~their~~ phonemic symbols.

Ex3) This is aimed to show the differences between ~~reporting~~ direct speech and reporting things that were said in the past. The teacher draws ~~Draw~~ two people on the board. One, whose name is Jack, is holding a phone and smiling ~~whose name is Jack~~. The other is just standing. The teacher gives the ~~Give~~ students the information that Jack is talking to a girl who he met in the school canteen. Then, the teacher asks the students what Jack tells his friend while taking on the phone. The answers might be in the present form such as ' She says I'm really nice'. In this process, the teacher makes sure that the students understand how 'you' changes to 'I'. The teacher now tells the students that Jack is back home and he was spurned by the girl. He is telling to his mother that 'She said I was really nice' which is past form. The teacher can write both past and present forms on the board to help students.

Ex4) Here, the language which the students are ~~were~~ going to study is ~~was~~ embedded in the texts which they read. The teacher makes the students read the story first. After confirming that they ~~are~~ fully understanood the story by asking comprehension questions, the teacher asks them to make bad or insensible statements using the story. Then, the ~~get~~ students to come up to the board and write the sentences. ~~so that T~~he sentences have to use the modal auxillary "should," such as ~~ncluding~~ 'Should have p.p.' or' Shouldn't have p.p'.(especially here.)

Re: tense in reported speech

Heidita — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 14:11:52 GMT

Infinik wrote:
Viceidol wrote:

direct speech: He said, "John is honest."

inrect speech: He said that John was honest.

I think both sentences are perfectly OK. The second one means that, John was honest at the time of speaking. So it does not imply whether John is honest now or not, we just can't tell from this sentence alone.

I don't agree with this. Indirect speech follows a certain pattern. Present simple passes to past simple. Grammatically speaking, "he said that John is honest" would be incorrect.

cheers

Re: My Direct Speech to Put into Indirect

SpoonfedBaby — Tue, 30 Aug 2005 13:41:07 GMT

Hello everybody,

I'm working on the rules of the reported speech and the ones on the future in the past.

A practical English Grammar wrote:

reported speech:
He said, âAnn will be in Paris on Monday.â >>> He said that Ann would be in Paris on Monday. (Future >>> Conditional)
âI never eat meat,â he explained >>> He explained that he never ate meat. (Present simple >>> past simple)

How English Works wrote:

future in the past:
When we are talking about the past, we often want to say that something was still in the future at that time. To express this idea, we can use the past progressive (was â¦ing), was going to â¦, would, or was to.
As the Duchess had said, the fact that Emily was marrying a general was a very adequate excuse for such ceremony at the wedding.

Pevious threads wrote:

My initial direct speech sentence:
When I registered my aunt at the gym, I asked them, âAre you going to give her money back if she doesnât like it?â

My sentence transformed into a reported speech sentence:
When I registered my aunt at the gym, I asked them whether they would give her money back, if she didn't like it.

Now, here my sentence is changed into what I would say if I had to talk about the past:

As they said when I registered her at the gym, the fact that the gym had this policy she would be reimbursed if she was to not like it.

Please, tell me if my last sentence is right. Do I understand the right way the reported speech and the future in the past?

I'm very grateful for your help.

SFB

Re: American English subjunctive help

taiwandave — Mon, 14 Jun 2004 20:46:22 GMT

We use "think" in the past simple or past perfect tense to indicate a belief that was previously held but that has been shown to be incorrect. For example:

I didn't think she was going. (past simple)
I had thought that she wasn't going. (past perfect)

The exception is in converting from direct to reported speech:

"I think he's a terrible teacher," she said. (direct speech)
She said that she thought he was a terrible teacher. (reported speech)

In the above, her opinion has not changed. The verb "think" is used in the past tense because we customarily switch from present simple to past simple when changing from direct speech to reported speech.

The subjunctive mood is used to express a wish or to describe a condition that is contrary to fact. The verb form is the same as the indicative mood except that the form of the verb "be" is "were" for all persons. (The indicative mood is that used to make a statement or ask a question. The vast majority of English sentences are in the indicative mood.).

When you say, "I didn't think she was going," you are not using the subjunctive mood. You are not expressing something that is contrary to fact. You are making a factual statement using the indicative mood. The "fact" you are mentioning is your previously-held belief that she would not go. The reason for using "think" in the past tense is that new information has since come to light (i.e. that she is, after all, going).

Re: Am I or I am

miriam — Sat, 29 May 2004 13:37:00 GMT

"Who am I?" is correct if you are asking a direct question.

In indirect speech you might say something like "I wonder who I am."

Miriam
------------------------------

~comes back to edit~

I forgot you asked "why".
The verb "to be" doesn't use any auxiliaries in the present simple, so in order to make a question you only need to invert the position of the subject and the verb.
In an affirmative sentence, you say:
"I am atm."

In a question, you turn "I am" into "am I", so you have:
"Who am I?" (for a wh-question)
or
"Am I atm?" (for a yes-no question)

Affirmative:
I am
You are
He/she/it is
We/you/they are

Interrogative:
Am I?
Are you?
Is he/she/it?
Are we/you/they?

Hope it helps.

Tenses in reported speech

Bubr — Sun, 15 Feb 2004 12:22:38 GMT

At school we were taught that the sentence She said "I love you" , being converted from direct speech to reported speech form, sounds like She said she loveD me .

The verb in the second sentence stands in Past Simple instead of Present Simple: loveD . The teachers emphasised the relevance of this rule because it contradicts the logic of our native language, Russian.

Although this rule of changing tenses in reported speech seems fine to me (she said she loveD me then, but it doesn't mean that she is still loving me, I still feel like using the 'incorrect' tense in some cases.

It is when the thing that was spoken out was definitely CONSTANT or obviously HASN'T CHANGED by now. For example,

At the first lecture the professor told us that Mathematics isn't easy. instead of wasn't easy [because it is as difficult now as it was then and as will always be!]
I told her that I am a vampire only yesterday. instead of I was [because I couldn't have changed within one day!]

Is it correct?