Page 95 - Advanced English Grammar in Use

R e p o r t i n g p e o p l e ' s w o r d s a n d t h o u g h t s

Quoting
We often report what people think or what they have said. In writing we may report their actual
words in a quotation (see also Appendix 2):
• 'I suppose you've heard the latest news,' she said.
• 'Of course,' Carter replied, 'you'll have to pay him to do the job.'
• She asked, 'What shall I do now?'
The reporting clause ('she said', 'Carter replied', etc.) can come before, within, or at the end of
the quotation.
In the English used in stories and novels, the reporting verb (e.g. say, reply, ask) is often placed
before the subject when the reporting clause comes after the quotation:
• 'When will you be back?' asked Arnold, (or ...Arnold asked.)
However, we don't use this order when the subject is a pronoun:
• 'And after that I moved to Italy,' she continued, (not ...continued she.)

B More commonly, especially in speech, we report in our own words what people think or what
they have said. When we do this we can use sentences that have a reporting clause and a
reported clause (see also Units 44 to 49):

reporting clause reported clause
She explained (that) she couldn't take the job until January,
He complained (that) he was hungry.

Negatives in reporting
To report what somebody didn't say or think, we make the reporting verb negative:
• He didn't tell me how he would get to London.
rtlf we want to report a negative sentence, then we normally report this in the reported clause:
• 'You're right, it isn't a good idea.' —* He agreed that it wasn't a good idea.
However, with some verbs, to report a negative sentence we make the verb in the reporting
clause negative instead:
• 'I'm sure it's not dangerous.' —• She didn't think it was dangerous, (rather than She thought
it wasn't dangerous.)
Other verbs like this include believe, expect, feel, intend, plan, propose, suppose, want.

Reporting using nouns
We sometimes report people's words and thoughts using a noun in the reporting clause
followed by a reported that-, to-infinitive-, or tf/7-clause:
• The claim is often made that smoking causes heart disease.
• The company yesterday carried out its threat to dismiss workers on strike.
• John raised the question of how the money would be collected.
• Nouns followed by a ffcaf-clause include acknowledgement, advice, announcement, answer,
a claim, comment, conclusion, decision, explanation, forecast, guarantee, observation, promise,
• reply, statement, warning. Notice that we don't usually leave out that in sentences like this.
• Nouns followed by a to-infinitive clause include advice, claim, decision, encouragement,
instruction, invitation, order, promise, recommendation, threat, warning. Notice that some of
these can also be followed by a that-clause.
• Nouns followed by a wh-dause include issue, problem, question. We usually use of after these
nouns in reporting.
Reporting questions = Reporting statements = Reporting offers, etc.