CBSE FREAK

1. Introduction to Reported Speech Reported speech or indirect speech is the second-hand account of what has been spoken by someone else ( direct speech ). In the above example, Amit’s friend reports what their teacher had said in the classroom. Inverted commas (“…”) are used for indicating direct speech, i.e., for showing the exact words spoken by the speaker. For example: Teacher: “I will give a test on reported speech tomorrow.” There are two ways of reporting this direct speech. I. Direct reported speech : By using the exact words of the speaker. The teacher said, “I will give a test on reported speech tomorrow.” As you would have noticed, there is not much difference between direct speech and direct reported speech . Both make use of the inverted commas, thereby indicating that the exact words of the speaker have been used. However, the use of the reporting verb (‘said’ in this case) in the latter differentiates it from the former. II. Ind

1. Introduction to Tenses The word ‘tense’ is derived from the Latin word ‘ tempus ’. It indicates the time of the occurrence of an action or an event . In any sentence, an action or a state of being is denoted by the verb. Hence, tenses are directly related to verbs. The different states of time are: Past , Present and Future . Very simply speaking, past is what happened yesterday; present is what happens today; and future is what will happen tomorrow. Note how at different moments the same event (the test on English tenses) can be situated in the future (when the teacher informs the students about the test), the present (when the test is being conducted) and the past (when the students are discussing the test). 2. The Twelve Tenses In English grammar, past, present and future have been further divided as follows: PRESENT PAST FUTURE Simple Simple Simple Continuous/Progressive Continuous/Progressive Continuous/Progressive Perfect Simple Perfect Simple Perfect S

1. Introduction to Sentences (a) A sentence is a group of words that makes complete sense . It does not depend upon anything else to make its meaning clear. For example: Raju hit the ball. Here, the individual words ‘Raju’ ‘hit’ ‘the’ ‘ball’ combine to form a group that has a particular meaning— someone named Raju has hit the ball . This brings us to the second important point about a sentence. (b) A sentence consists of two parts— subject and predicate . The subject of a sentence is the person, place, thing or idea being talked about . The predicate consists of a word or words which show what is being talked about the person, place, thing or idea . Let us take the previous example: [Raju] [hit the ball.] Here, ‘Raju’ is the subject. He is the topic of the sentence . The remaining part of the sentence forms the predicate as it contains all the information regarding the topic (i.e., Raju). 2. The Subject and Predicate of a Sentence The Subject of a Sentence The su