Reporting people's words and thought

Quoting and reporting in our own words
When we report what people think or what they have said, we often report in our own words when the information they convey is more important than their exact words. When we do this we can use sentences that have a reporting clause and a reported clause :

If their exact words are important or if we want to create some dramatic effect, we might report their actual words. In writing this is done in a quotation:

• I suppose you've heard the latest news,' she said.
• 'Of course,' Carter replied, 'you'll have to pay him to do the job.' The reporting clause 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, think) 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 (except in a literary style):

• 'And after that I moved to Italy,' she continued, (not ...continued she.)

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.

If we want to report a negative sentence, then we usually report this in the reported clause:

• 'You're right, it isn't a good idea.' -» He agreed that it wasn't a good idea, although it may be reported in the reporting clause, depending on meaning:
• I disagree. It's not a good idea at all.' -» He didn't agree that it was a good idea.

However, with some verbs, to report a negative sentence we usually make the verb in the reporting clause negative:

• I expect he won't come.'/ i don't expect he will come.'
• She didn't expect him to co~' (rather than She expected he wouldn't come.)

Other verbs like this include believe, feel, intend, plan, propose, suppose, think, want.

Reporting questions
To report a wh-question we use a reporting clause and a clause with a wh-word:

• She asked me what the problem was.
• I asked him where to go next.

When we report a yes/no question we use a reporting clause followed by a clause beginning with either if or whether (but note that we can't use if to-infinitive):

• Liz wanted to know if/whether we had any photos of our holiday.

The usual word order in a wh-, if-, or whether-chuse is the one we would use in a statement:

• 'Have you seen Paul recently?' -» She wanted to know if I had seen Paul recently. However, if the original question begins what, which, or who followed by be complement we can put the complement before or after be in the report:
• 'Who was the winner?' -» I asked who the winner was. (or ...who was the winner.)

Notice that we don't use a form of do in the wh-, if-, or whether-dause:

• She asked me where I found it. (not ...where did I find it./...where I did find it.)
  

However, if we are reporting a negative question, we can use a negative form of do:

• He asked (me) why I didn't want anything to eat.