📄️ Noun Clauses, Direct and Indirect Speech
introduction
📄️ Direct speech: reporting verbs and word order
Informal spoken reports: said, thought
📄️ Indirect speech: introduction
Change of situation
📄️ Indirect speech: tenses
Past reporting verbs: He said he didn’t like the party.
📄️ Indirect speech: questions and answers
Word order: I asked where Alice was.
📄️ whether and if
Indirect questions
📄️ Indirect speech: infinitives
He promised to write.
📄️ Indirect speech: advanced points
Reporting past tenses
📄️ *that*-clauses
that as a connector
📄️ Leaving out *that*
We can often leave out the conjunction that, especially in an informal style.
📄️ Interrogative (question-word) clauses
Besides their use in indirect speech, clauses beginning with question words (who, what, where, etc) can act as subjects, complements or adverbials. This structure is often rather informal (especially with how\-clauses, (see here).