Page 218 - Basic English Usage

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We use remind ... ofto say that something makes us remember the
past.
remind + object + of...
The smell of hay always reminds me of our old house in the country.
She reminds me of her mother. (= She looks like her mother, or she
behaves like her mother.)

282 reported speech and direct speech

There are two ways Of telling a person what somebody else said.
a. direct speech
SUE: What did Bill say?
PETER: He said ‘lwant to go home’.
b. reported speech
SUE: What did Bill say?
PETER: He said that he wanted to go home.
When we use ‘direct speech’, we give the exact words (more or less)
that were said. When we use ‘reported speech’, we change the words
that were said to make them fit into our own sentence. (For example,
when Peter is talking about Bill he says he wanted, not | want.) For
details, see 283.

We use a conjunction to join a reported speech clause to the rest of the
sentence.
a. reported statements: that
He said that he wanted to go home.
In an informal style we can leave out that.
He said’ he wanted to go home.
b. reported questions: if, whether, what, where, how, etc
She asked me if | wanted anything to drink.
She asked me what my name was.
When we report orders, requests, advice etc, we usually use an infinitive
structure.
Who toid you to put the lights off?
| advised Lucy to go to the police.
For more details of these structures, see 284; 285.

‘Reported speech’ is not only used to report what people say. We use
the same structure to report people’s thoughts, beliefs, knowledge etc.
| thought something was wrong.
She knew what | wanted.
Ann wondered if Mr Blackstone really understood her.