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Past Perfect A: He had spoken. action taking place before a already, just,
Simple N: He had not spoken. certain time in the past never, not yet,
Q: Had he spoken? once, until that
sometimes interchangeable
day
with past perfect
if sentence type
progressive III (If I had
putting emphasis only on talked, )
the fact (not the duration)
Past Perfect A: He had been speaking. action taking place before a for, since, the
Progressive N: He had not been certain time in the past whole day, all
speaking. day
sometimes interchangeable
Q: Had he been
with past perfect simple
speaking?
putting emphasis on
the duration or course of
an action
Future I A: He will speak. action in the future that in a year, next ,
Simple N: He will not speak. cannot be influenced tomorrow
Q: Will he speak? If-Satz Typ I (If
spontaneous decision
you ask her,
assumption with regard to shewill help you.)
the future assumption: I
think, probably,
perhaps
Future I A: He is going to speak. decision made for the in one year, next
Simple N: He is not going to future week, tomorrow
speak.
(going to) conclusion with regard to
Q: Is he going to speak?
the future
Future I A: He will be speaking. action that is going on at a in one year, next
Progressive N: He will not be certain time in the future week, tomorrow
speaking.
action that is sure to happen
Q: Will he be speaking?
in the near future
Future II A: He will have spoken. action that will by Monday, in a
Simple N: He will not have be finished at a certain week
spoken. time in the future
Q: Will he have spoken?
Future II A: He will have been action taking place before a for , the last
Progressive speaking. certain time in the future couple of hours,
N: He will not have been all day long
putting emphasis on
speaking.
the course of an action
Q: Will he have been
speaking?
Conditional A: He would speak. action that might take if sentences type
I Simple N: He would not speak. place II
Q: Would he speak? (If I were you,
I would gohome.)
Conditional A: He would be speaking. action that might take place
I N: He would not be
putting emphasis on
Progressive speaking.
the course / duration of
Q: Would he be
the action
speaking?
Conditional A: He would have action that might have if sentences type
II Simple spoken. taken place in the past III
N: He would not have (If I had seen
spoken. that, I would
Q: Would he have have helped.)
spoken?
Conditional A: He would have been action that might have
II speaking. taken place in the past
Progressive N: He would not have
puts emphasis on
been speaking.
the course / duration of
Q: Would he have been
speaking? the action
Explanation Past Present Future
action that takes place once, He played football He plays football He will / is going to
never or several times every Tuesday. every Tuesday. play football every
Tuesday.
actions that happen one after He played football He plays football He will play football
another and then he went and then he goes and then he will go
home. home. home.
actions taking place at the same He was playing He is playing He will be playing
time football and she was football and she is football and she will be
watching. watching. watching.
action taking place before a He had won five He has won five He will have won five
certain moment in time; matches until that matches so far. matches by then.
emphasises the result day.
action taking place before a He had been playing He has been playing He will have been
certain moment in time (and football for ten years. football for ten playing football for ten
beyond), emphasises the years. years.
duration
Legend
Legend
action that takes place once, never or several times
actions that happen one after another
moment in time
actions that suddenly take place
action that started before a certain moment and lasts beyond that moment
Reported Statements
When do we use reported speech? Sometimes someone says a sentence, for example "I'm
going to the cinema tonight". Later, maybe we want to tell someone else what the first
person said.
We use a 'reporting verb' like 'say' or 'tell'. (Click here for more about using 'say' and
'tell'.) If this verb is in the present tense, it's easy. We just put 'she says' and then the
sentence:
We don't need to change the tense, though probably we do need to change the 'person' from
'I' to 'she', for example. We also may need to change words like 'my' and 'your'.
(As I'm sure you know, often, we can choose if we want to use 'that' or not in English. I've
put it in brackets () to show that it's optional. It's exactly the same if you use 'that' or if you
don't use 'that'.)
But, if the reporting verb is in the past tense, then usually we change the tenses in the
reported speech:
present simple I like ice cream She said (that) she liked ice cream.
present I am living in
She said (that) she was living in London.
continuous London
past I was walking along She said (that) she had been walking along the
continuous the street street.
present perfect I haven't seen Julie She said (that) she hadn't seen Julie.
I had taken English She said (that) she had taken English lessons
past perfect*
lessons before before.
will I'll see you later She said (that) she would see me later.
would* I would help, but.. She said (that) she would help but...
shall I shall come later She said (that) she would come later.
I should call my
should* She said (that) she should call her mother
mother
might* "I might be late" She said (that) she might be late
"I must study at the She said (that) she must study at the weekend OR
must
weekend" She said she had to study at the weekend
* doesn't change.
Occasionally, we don't need to change the present tense into the past if the information in
direct speech is still true (but this is only for things which are general facts, and even then
usually we like to change the tense):
Reported Questions
So now you have no problem with making reported speech from positive and negative
sentences. But how about questions?
In fact, it's not so different from reported statements. The tense changes are the same, and we keep
the question word. The very important thing though is that, once we tell the question to someone
else, it isn't a question any more. So we need to change the grammar to a normal positive sentence. A
bit confusing? Maybe this example will help:
Another example:
The direct question is the present simple of 'be'. We make the question form of the present simple of
be by inverting (changing the position of)the subject and verb. So, we need to change them back
before putting the verb into the past simple.
Here are some more examples:
Where is the Post Office, please? She asked me where the Post Office was.
Who was that fantastic man? She asked me who that fantastic man had been.
So much for 'wh' questions. But, what if you need to report a 'yes / no' question? We don't have any
question words to help us. Instead, we use 'if':
Have you ever been to Mexico? She asked me if I had ever been to Mexico.
Reported Requests
There's more! What if someone asks you to do something (in a polite way)? For example:
All of these requests mean the same thing, so we don't need to report every word when we
tell another person about it. We simply use 'ask me + to + infinitive':
Could you bring my book tonight? She asked me to bring her book that night.
Could you pass the milk, please? She asked me to pass the milk.
Would you mind coming early tomorrow? She asked me to come early the next day.
Reported Orders
And finally, how about if someone doesn't ask so politely? We can call this an 'order' in
English, when someone tells you very directly to do something. For example:
In fact, we make this into reported speech in the same way as a request. We just use 'tell'
instead of 'ask':
Sometimes when we change direct speech into reported speech we have to change time
expressions too. We don't always have to do this, however. It depends on when we heard the
direct speech and when we say the reported speech.
For example:
If I tell someone on Monday, I say "Julie said she was leaving today".
If I tell someone on Tuesday, I say "Julie said she was leaving yesterday".
If I tell someone on Wednesday, I say "Julie said she was leaving on Monday".
If I tell someone a month later, I say "Julie said she was leaving that day".
So, there's no easy conversion. You really have to think about when the direct speech was
said.
yesterday the day before yesterday / the day before / Wednesday / the 5th of December
This conditional is used when the result will always happen. So, if water reaches 100 degrees, it
always boils. It's a fact. I'm talking in general, not about one particular situation. The result of the 'if
clause' is always the main clause.
The 'if' in this conditional can usually be replaced by 'when' without changing the meaning.
For example: If water reaches 100 degrees, it boils. (It is always true, there can't be a
different result sometimes). If I eat peanuts, I am sick. (This is true only for me, maybe, not
for everyone, but it's still true that I'm sick every time I eat peanuts)
See this page about the first conditional to learn about the difference between the first
and the zero conditionals. The first conditional is about a specific situation, but the zero is
talking in general.
The First Conditional
The first conditional has the present simple after 'if', then the future simple in the other
clause:
It's used to talk about things which might happen in the future. Of course, we can't know
what will happen in the future, but this describes possible things, which could easily come
true.
For example (zero conditional): if you sit in the sun, you get burned (here I'm talking about
every time a person sits in the sun - the burning is a natural consequence of the sitting)
But (first conditional): if you sit in the sun, you'll get burned (here I'm talking about what
will happen today, another day might be different)
The first conditional describes things that I think are likely to happen in the future, whereas
the second conditional talks about things that I don't think will really happen. It's
subjective; it depends on my point of view.
For example (first conditional): If she studies harder, she'll pass the exam (I think it's
possible she will study harder and so she'll pass)
But (second conditional): If she studied harder, she would pass the exam (I think that she
won't study harder, or it's very unlikely, and so she won't pass)
The Second Conditional
The second conditional uses the past simple after if, then 'would' and the infinitive:
(We can use 'were' instead of 'was' with 'I' and 'he/she/it'. This is mostly done in formal
writing).
First, we can use it to talk about things in the future that are probably not going to be true.
Maybe I'm imagining some dream for example.
If I won the lottery, I would buy a big house.(I probably won't win the lottery)
If I met the Queen of England, I would say hello.
She would travel all over the world if she were rich.
She would pass the exam if she ever studied.(She never studies, so this won't happen)
Second, we can use it to talk about something in the present which is impossible, because
it's not true. Is that clear? Have a look at the examples:
If I had his number, I would call him. (I don't have his number now, so it's impossible for
me to call him).
If I were you, I wouldn't go out with that man.
This kind of conditional sentence is different from the first conditional because this is a lot
more unlikely.
For example (second conditional): If I had enough money I would buy a house with twenty
bedrooms and a swimming pool (I'm probably not going to have this much money, it's just a
dream, not very real)
But (first conditional): If I have enough money, I'll buy some new shoes (It's much more
likely that I'll have enough money to buy some shoes)
The Third Conditional
We make the third conditional by using the past perfect after 'if' and then 'would have' and
the past participle in the second part of the sentence:
It talks about the past. It's used to describe a situation that didn't happen, and to imagine
the result of this situation.
If she had studied, she would have passed the exam (but, really we know she didn't
study and so she didn't pass)
If I hadn't eaten so much, I wouldn't have felt sick (but I did eat a lot, and so I did feel
sick).
If we had taken a taxi, we wouldn't have missed the plane
She wouldn't have been tired if she had gone to bed earlier
She would have become a teacher if she had gone to university
He would have been on time for the interview if he had left the house at nine
Tag questions
Tag questions (or question tags) turn a statement into a question. They are often used for
checking information that we think we know is true.
Tag questions are made using an auxiliary verb (for example: be or have) and a subject
pronoun (for example: I, you, she). Negative question tags are usually contracted: It's
warm today, isn't it (not 'is it not')
Usually if the main clause is positive, the question tag is negative, and if the main clause
is negative, it's positive. For example: It's cold (positive), isn't it (negative)? And: It isn't
cold (negative), is it (positive)?
If the main clause has an auxiliary verb in it, you use the same verb in the tag question. If
there is no auxiliary verb (in the present simple and past simple) use do / does / did (just
like when you make a normal question).
Past simple other verbs He went to the party last night, didn't he?
Present perfect continuous She's been studying a lot recently, hasn't she?
Future perfect continuous She'll have been cooking all day, won't she?
Present simple other verbs She doesn't have any children, does she?
Past simple other verbs They didn't go out last Sunday, did they?
Present perfect She hasn't eaten all the cake, has she?
Present perfect continuous He hasn't been running in this weather, has he?
Future perfect She won't have left work before six, will she?
Future perfect continuous He won't have been travelling all day, will he?