Home | Crosswords | Word Searches | Flash Cards | Verbs | Songs | Creative Writing | Work Sheets | Phonics | ABCs Survival English | Business ESL | ESL for Adults | ESL Articles | Lesson Plans | Holiday Worksheet | ESL Jobs
Reported Speech with 'that' Noun Clauses
Match #1:
This is the most basic form of indirect reported speech: Noun clauses with 'that' after 'said', 'heard', 'thought', 'read', and 'wrote'. Here are some examples:
He said that he needed to talk to you.
She heard that we were going on vacation.
He thought that the picture was beautiful.
They read that aliens had landed in New York.
She wrote that women would be more successful if they had a room of their own.
Note the use of past tense. As mentioned already, there are times when you can use the present tense, but for this activity it is a good idea to make the students always use the past tense as it is more generally used. The past tense has to be applied to all subordinate clauses in the speech that is being reported as well. Look at the these examples. You will need to be mindful of them when you are refereeing the soccer match. Students pick them up quite easily without any grammatical explanation. You just have to point them out once or twice.
Past tense applied to an adjective clause:
"I want to talk to anybody who wishes to join us."
He said that he wanted to talk to anybody who wished to join us.
Past tense applied to an adverbial clause:
"I will give you the jewel if you release the girl."
He said that he would give us the jewel if we released the girl.
Past tense applied to a noun clause:
"I don't think that I can do it."
He said that he didn't think he could do it.
Another problem with reporting speech is what to with things like 'this', 'these', tomorrow, and other time expressions. I don't want this activity to turn into a rule memorizing activity so I left out time expressions like 'tomorrow' on purpose. The only other thing students will need to know is that 'this' should become 'it' or possibly 'that.'
Resources
Introductory Worksheets
Soccer Match Cards
Match #2: Different Ways to Say Something:
Match #3: Embedded Questions and Reported Speech
Match #5: Threats and Promises