Remember the example from the previous lesson?
"I think my dog has fleas."
Mark said that he thought his dog had fleas.
We have to change the subject of the sentence in reported speech. When Mark is talking, he uses 'I' but when we are reporting, we have to use 'he' because we are not talking about ourselves.
The only time when we don't have to change the pronoun (I, he, she, etc.) in reported speech is if we are reporting something we said ourselves.
Imagine the Kid President is talking. He might say these words.
"I want to make everyone in the world dance! I want to do things to make the world a better place."
Now, if you asked him, "Kid President, what did you tell all the young people on SMRT?", he might say to you:
I told them that I wanted to make everyone in the world dance. I said that I wanted to do things to make the world a better place.
In this case, Kid President doesn't need to change the subject or pronoun because he himself is reporting what he said earlier.
Unlock full access by logging in. Registered users can explore the entire lesson and more.