Who Said What? Passing On a Message

Imagine that a volunteer examines your lamp and says, "The switch is broken." At home, your partner mainly needs the result. You can report that the volunteer said the switch was broken. Use a quotation when the particular words matter, perhaps because someone wants to check a promise. A report can be shorter, but it must keep the original meaning.

Before changing pronouns, work out who each word describes. If a volunteer tells you, "I can repair your lamp," I means the volunteer and your means you. Your report might use she and my. Names are useful when two people could be she or he. Do not replace pronouns from a fixed list without checking the people.

Rule out और Who, which, or that: how to choose में इसका और अभ्यास कर सकते हैं।

After said or told, English often moves the message's tense back: is becomes was, can becomes could, and will becomes would. An earlier past action can use had plus the past participle. Time words also need a check. If you report Monday's tomorrow on Wednesday, say Tuesday or the next day. A named day can make practical arrangements clearer.

Learn the usual tense changes first, then check whether the information still applies. You can keep a present tense for a current fact, such as the café's regular location. With a present reporting verb like says, there is usually no move into the past. Also, a past form after said does not automatically tell us that a fact has changed.

When reporting a question, put the subject before the verb: where the box was, rather than where was the box. For a yes-or-no question, use if or whether. Requests need another pattern: asked someone to do something. Told someone to do something often presents the message as an instruction. Choose a reporting verb that fits what the speaker was doing.

In conversation, small words such as that and had may be quiet. That can also be absent after said: both versions are grammatical. Listen for contractions too. In she'd finished, she'd means she had; in she'd return, it means she would. For dictation, recover the words you hear. For recall practice afterwards, cover the transcript and explain the message in your own words.

In a written update, name the source and include what the reader needs to do next. Use said with a statement, or told with a listener: told me, told us, told Anna. Put quotation marks around exact words only. Keep uncertainty too: might be ready is not a promise. After writing, check the people, the timing and how certain the original speaker sounded.