General English Level 4 Version 2.1 © 2004 acl Pty Ltd GELEV4 Unit 01 Topic 05.doc LANGUAGE FOCUS 02 Reported speech In this activity you will learn about reported speech. 1. Direct Speech Look The Mayor: “I think the community centre will be of great benefit to the community and I am sure all residents are going to make full use of the facilities”. Present simple Future simple Present simple Present continuous 2. Indirect Speech The Mayor of Newtown, Barry Baskett said that he thought the new community centre would be of great benefit to the community and he was sure that all residents were going to make full use of all the facilities. Will future - would Present simple – past simple Present simple – past simple Present continuous – past continuous Look at activity 06 (LANGUAGE FOCUS Quoting speech) in this Topic (02) to learn more about direct speech. Direct speech is when we quote the speaker's words. When we report what people said we call this reported speech. Usually, the tense of the verbs in direct speech "moves back" one tense in reported speech. We also use this report structure when we report what someone thought. 37