Complex sentences

Describing the world indirectly—Reported speech

One suuuuuuuper common way we use complex sentences in daily life is when we report other people's speech.

For example, what’s the difference between these two snippets?

I was born with natural track-and-field talent because of my mom.

Brook always said I was born with natural track-and-field talent because of my mom.

Mango Delight(2017)

The first describes the world directly. The narrator tells us something which we accept as fact.

woman in sports gear holds baby wearing gold medal
Describing the world directly.

The second describes the world indirectly. The narrator summarises what someone else said.

woman talking and inside speech bubble is a woman in sports gear holding baby wearing gold medal
Describing the world indirectly.

When we talk about the world in terms of what characters say, it’s called reported speech, and reported speech is always a complex sentence.

In reported speech, we have:

  • The reporter—the person who is communicating something.
  • Their method of delivery—such as saying, telling, implying, hinting, plus any helper words required to indicate how the reporter gets their message across. 
  • The message—what they are saying about the world.

Taken together the reporter and the method of delivery form a sort of wrapper around the core meaning (the message).

Can you spot these elements of reported speech in each of the following snippets?

Brook always said I was born with natural track-and-field talent because of my mom.

Mango Delight(2017)

She had told him not to leave the room.

Forged by Fire(1997)

Mom made it seem like this move was no big deal because we’d be back when her new job contract expired.

The First Rule of Punk

That last one was a little bit sneaky because “made it seem like” isn’t just describing the mother saying something. It likely covers a whole range of behaviours—things that she has said, done, written down—that all together communicate to the narrator that the move isn’t a big deal.

For the purposes of this analysis, we consider any kind of reported communication to be reported “speech”.

As we saw above, the delivery can be a phrase incorporating several types of word group, but at the heart will be some kind of 'speech-related' verb, such as:

  • Say, add, answer, reply, insist, claim, read, disclose, suggest, maintain, repeat, report, mention, announce, assert, convey, declare, respond, reveal, state.
  • 'Tell' is another saying verb, but unlike the other verbs listed here it also needs a person/thing who is ‘being told’ (i.e. “I told my mother I wouldn’t be home tonight”).
Write your own example of reported speech, with a reporter, delivery method, and message. How many clauses do you have?

But speech (and, more broadly, communication) is only one way to indirectly describe the world. Let’s take a look at some other ways!

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