Spójrz na poniższy dialog i jego wersję w mowie zależnej (niżej). Krok po kroku prześledzimy, jak zmieniają się czasy w Reported Speech.

– I am starving – he said.
– Haven’t you had lunch? It’s seven o’clock – she asked.
– I had, but I ate only some lettuce. My wife says I must go on a diet. I have been eating lettuce for five days. Well, yesterday she was cooking dinner and I hadn’t been eating for many hours and had had only a banana so I stole a slice of bacon and…
– If you eat only lettuce, you will go mad before you lose weight. I can prepare you a sandwich.
– Thank you Susan. You are the only person who understands me.
– Actually I don’t think you are too fat. Perhaps plump, but definitely not obese.
– Please, Susan, come closer. I only want to tell you, here and now, that you are the nicest woman in the world. I wish I hadn’t got married.
– Don’t cry. We can do something about it. Now eat your sandwich.

 

– Hi Joan.
– Hi Susan. Has something happened?
– Well, yes. Frank, you know, my boss – I told you about him. The most handsome man in the office – perhaps a little plump, but really cute, and you know I like plump men…
– Will you tell me what happened?
– Well, nothing serious, really. We were alone in the office, you know, I was working on these papers for the transfer, and was preparing a sandwich in the kitchen, and he was only drinking some water, and then he looked at my sandwich and he said he was starving! You know he never says such things, he only talks about legal matters. I asked him if he hadn’t had lunch because it was seven o’clock already, and he said he had had lunch but had eaten only some lettuce! Can you imagine? Such a big man and a few leaves of lettuce for lunch! He said his wife said he had to go on a diet. He had been eating lettuce for a few days!
– Oh! His wife must be awful!
– Exactly! He said when she had been cooking dinner he had stolen some bacon because he hadn’t been eating for many hours and had had only a banana! I told him if he ate only lettuce he would go mad before he lost weight and I added that I could prepare him a sandwich.
– Susan!
– Yes, I was brave, wasn’t I? He thanked me and said I was the only person who understood him. I told him I didn’t think he was too fat, I said perhaps he was plump, but not obese. And you can’t imagine what happened. He asked me to come closer…
– Ough!
– …and he said he only wanted to tell me there and then that I was the nicest woman in the world! He said he wished he hadn’t got married! And he started to cry!
– Oh my god! And what did you do?
– I told him to eat his sandwich. I said there was something we could do about it.
– What did you mean?
– I don’t know yet…

Następstwo czasów jest jednym z tych praw angielskiej gramatyki, które budzą intuicyjny sprzeciw Polaka. No bo jak to?! – krzyczy typowy uczeń, który uczy się Reported Speech po raz pierwszy – przecież po polsku tak nie jest! Jest jakoś tak prościej! Chcemy Cię przekonać, że pod wieloma względami to język angielski jest językiem bardziej logicznym niż nasz język rodzimy! Spójrz na proste zdanie:

Jestem głodny – powiedział.
W języku polskim wszystko jedno, kiedy powiedział; czy w chwilę potem, czy rok później. Podając tę samą treść w mowie zależnej, powiemy tak:

Przed chwilą powiedział, że jest głodny. Zrób mu kanapkę.
Rok temu spotkałem go na Krakowskim Przedmieściu. Powiedział, że jest głodny, więc poszliśmy na kebaba.

O ile pierwsze zdanie dałoby się jeszcze wybronić, to drugie, z logicznego punktu widzenia, jest zupełnie bezsensowne! No bo jak to, rok temu powiedział, że teraz jest głodny? Brzmi jak bredzenie logika! Język angielski, bardziej logiczny pod tym względem, każe nam powiedzieć tak:

“I am hungry”, he said.
He said he was hungry.

 

Zmiany czasów w Reported Speech

Present Simple – Past Simple I only want to tell you… He said he only wanted to tell me…
Present Continuous – Past Continuous I am starving… He said he was starving…
Past Simple – Past Perfect I ate only some lettuce… He said he had eaten some lettuce…
Past Continuous – Past Perfect Continuous When she was cooking dinner… He said when she had been cooking dinner…
Present Perfect – Past Perfect Haven’t you had lunch? I asked if he hadn’t had lunch.
Present Perfect Continuous – Past Perfect Continuous I have been eating lettuce… He said he had been eating lettuce…
Past Perfect – Past Perfect …I had had only a banana… He said he had had only a banana…
Past Perfect Continuous – Past Perfect Continuous He hadn’t been eating for many ­hours. He said he hadn’t been eating for many hours.
must – had to I must go on a diet. He said he had to go on a diet.
can – could I can prepare you a sandwich. I said I could prepare him a sandwich.
will – would …you will go mad… I said he would go mad…

 

Inne zmiany w mowie zależnej

W Reported Speech zmieniają się też osoby. Jeśli bohaterka dialogu mówi:

I can prepare you a sandwich,
to w mowie zależnej powiemy:
She said she could prepare him a sandwich.

Trzeba pamiętać o słówkach: here, now, this, today itd. Ponieważ są to słowa zaczepione w „tu i teraz”, muszą się one zmienić, kiedy opowiadamy o tych wydarzeniach jako dziejących się w przeszłości.
Oto przykładowe zmiany:

  • here – there
  • now – then
  • this – that
  • today – that day
  • ago – before
  • yesterday – the day before / the previous day
  • tomorrow – the next day / the following day

Co jeszcze się zmienia?
Zmieniają się wszelkie określenia czasu, a więc:

  • today – that day
  • yesterday – the day before
  • the day before yesterday – two days before
  • tomorrow – the next day/the following day
  • next year/month etc. – the following year/month etc.
  • last year/month etc. – the previous year/month etc.
  • a year ago – a year before

Na razie przypominaliśmy sobie tylko zdania oznajmujące po angielsku. Następnym razem zajmiemy się pytaniami i trybem rozkazującym. Równie prostym co obsługa zmywarki – i to takiej sprzed 20 lat!

 

Pytania, prośby, rozkazy i inne…

– Hi Mary.
– Hi Frank. Did you faint in the office?
– How do you know?
– Why didn’t you tell me?
– Stop talking about that.
– Would you like something to eat?
– I won’t eat anything you’ve prepared. You wanted to kill me!
– What are you talking about?

Mary asked her husband if he had fainted in the office. He wondered how she knew that. She wanted to know why he hadn’t told her about the accident and he told her to stop talking about that. She offered him something to eat but he refused. He accused his wife of an attempt at killing him and she pretended she didn’t know what he was talking about.

Pytania

Jak przytaczamy pytania w mowie zależnej?

  • W pytaniach oczywiście stosujemy zmiany czasów – tak jak w zdaniach twierdzących.
  • W mowie zależnej pytania tracą szyk zdania pytającego: zamieniamy go na szyk zdania oznajmującego, np.
    Are you hungry? (w szyku zdania pytającego przestawiony jest podmiot z orzeczeniem) i
    She asked if I was hungry. (szyk zdania twierdzącego – najpierw podmiot, potem orzeczenie).
  • W pytaniach typu yes/no questions dodajemy if lub whether (czy), np.
    She asked if/whether I was hungry. W Wh-questions nie jest to konieczne (tak samo w języku polskim w tych pytaniach nie dodajemy czy, np.
    How much chicken do you want? ale: He asked me how much chicken I wanted.
  • W pytaniach używamy czasowników: ask, want to know, wonder, enquire, not be sure if itp.

Poleceni, prośby, rozkazy

W zamianie trybu rozkazującego na mowę zależną koniecznie trzeba pamiętać o zamianie czasowników. Spójrz na przykłady:

Eat something. She told him to eat something.
Please, eat something. She begged him to eat something.
Don’t be cross. She asked him not to be cross.

Sugestie, propozycje

  • Why don’t you have a sandwich?
    She suggested that I should have a sandwich.
  • Let’s go for lunch.
    She suggested we could go for lunch /we go for lunch.
  • I can give you some soup.
    She offered to give him some soup.
  • I will prepare something special.
    She promised to prepare something special.

Ważne!
Spróbuj na chwilę zapomnieć o czasowniku say. Oprócz tego, że musisz użyć innego czasownika, kiedy w grę wchodzą pytania, sugestie czy rozkazy, dobrze jest po prostu nie nadużywać czasownika say w zwykłych zdaniach twierdzących w Reported Speech. Można go zastąpić innymi czasownikami. Koniecznie je zapamiętaj:

add – dodać
admit – przyznać
advise – poradzić
agree – zgodzić się
announce – ogłosić
answer – odpowiedzieć
assume – zakładać
boast – chwalić się
explain – wyjaśnić
forbid – zabronić
imagine – wyobrażać sobie
insist – nalegać
instruct – poinstruować
moan – narzekać
promise – obiecać
shout – wykrzyknąć
swear – przysięgać
think – myśleć
threaten – zagrozić
whisper – wyszeptać

 

Sprawdź się!

Poniższe ćwiczenie proste, ale jednocześnie perfidne… Pięć zdań należy zamienić na mowę zależną, używając następujących czasowników: boast, assume, moan, admit, threaten

1. You must be hungry. She ………………………………………..
2. I am the best cook you know. She ……………………………….
3. Well, I don’t cook very often. She ……………………………
4. I don’t have time for cooking. She ……………………………..
5. If you don’t eat, I will tell your friends what happened. She ……………….

Rozwiązania
1. She assumed I was hungry.
2. She boasted she was the best cook I knew.
3. She admitted she didn’t cook very often.
4. She moaned she didn’t have time for cooking.
5. She threatened to tell my friends if I didn’t it.