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Lesson planB255 minsNew. New: checked automatically for level, grammar, facts and originality; a teacher's review is still to come. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.
What Did the Witnesses Say? Reported speech
Students practise reported speech across all tenses using witness statements, then write a short news report about an incident.
Reported speech · Crime · News
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Plan at a glance
Aims
- Use reported speech — full tense range accurately
- Learn and use 17 words and phrases in 2 sets: Crime and investigation, Reporting verbs
- Read for detail: break-in at the bakery
- Writing task: a news report
Stages · 55 min
- 5 minLead-in: Pairs talk about crime and share ideas with the class.
- 5 minVocabulary: Ex. 1
- 5 minLanguage focus: Go through the grammar notes together and check understanding.
- 5 minControlled practice: Ex. 2
- 10 minAccuracy practice: Ex. 3–4
- 10 minReading: Ex. 5
- 15 minWriting: Ex. 6
Printables
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Download all (ZIP, 4 PDFs)Grammar notes
Tense shifts after a past reporting verb
- Present perfect → past perfect: "I've lost my keys." → He said he had lost his keys.
- Present perfect continuous / past continuous → past perfect continuous: "I've been waiting for an hour." → She said she had been waiting for an hour.
- Passives shift too: "The car is being repaired." → He said the car was being repaired. "It has been stolen." → She said it had been stolen.
- will have done → would have done: "I'll have finished by Friday." → She said she would have finished by Friday.
What stays the same
- Past perfect and modal perfects don't change: must have, should have, might have, could have.
- If something is still true, you can keep the original tense: She said the shop opens at eight.
- Change time and place words when needed: here → there, today → that day, yesterday → the day before.
Reporting verbs
- admit / deny + -ing: He denied taking the money. (also: denied having taken)
- claim / insist + that: She insisted that she hadn't seen him.
- tell / warn / ask + person + (not) to: The officer told us not to touch anything.
Study tips
- When you read a news story, underline the reporting verbs (said, claimed, denied…) and notice the tense that follows.
- Say and tell are different: say (that) …, but tell someone (that) ….
Glossary
- Crime and investigation9 items
- Reporting verbs8 items
Complete the exercises, then check your answers.
1
Crime and reporting verbs
Match each word with its meaning. There is one extra meaning.
Tap an item…
…then its match
2
Report what they said
Complete each reported sentence. Use one to four words. If the situation is still true, the tense can sometimes stay the same.
- a
"We were watching TV when we heard the noise," the neighbours said. → The neighbours said they TV when they heard the noise.
- b
"The back window has been broken," the officer said. → The officer said the back window broken.
- c
"The thief must have used a ladder," Mrs Hale said. → Mrs Hale said the thief a ladder.
- d
"I'll have finished my report by Friday," the detective said. → The detective said she her report by Friday.
- e
"The car is being repaired," the owner told us. → The owner told us the car repaired.
- f
"I had never seen him before," the witness said. → The witness said she him before.
- g
"Someone has been using my bank card," Jack complained. → Jack complained that someone his bank card.
3
Key word transformations
Complete the second sentence so that it means the same as the first. Use the word in capitals and between two and five words, including that word.
- a
"I didn't take the money," Liam said.
DENIED
Liam the money.
Use 2–5 words, including the word given.
- b
"Yes, I left the back door unlocked," Sara said.
ADMITTED
Sara the back door unlocked.
Use 2–5 words, including the word given.
- c
"Don't touch anything," the officer said to us.
TOLD
The officer anything.
Use 2–5 words, including the word given.
- d
"Have you been living here long?" the detective asked me.
HAD
The detective asked me living there long.
Use 2–5 words, including the word given.
- e
"I didn't break the window!" the boy said.
INSISTED
The boy broken the window.
Use 2–5 words, including the word given.
- f
"You should have called us earlier," the officer told Mr Ross.
SHOULD
The officer told Mr Ross called them earlier.
Use 2–5 words, including the word given.
4
Find and correct the mistake
Each sentence has one mistake. Write the correction.
- a
The suspect denied to steal the bike.
- b
The witness told that she had seen a tall man near the bank.
- c
The detective asked me where had I been that evening.
- d
He said me that his car had been stolen.
- e
Mrs Hale explained that the alarm hadn't been work for weeks.
- f
The police warned us to not leave the building.
5
Read: break-in at the bakery
Read the news report. Are the sentences true, false or not given?
Police in Hollybridge are asking for help after a break-in at Mason's Bakery on Friday night. The owner, Ruth Mason, said that she had locked the shop at eight o'clock as usual and that nothing had seemed wrong. She told reporters that the back door had been forced open and that about £600 had been taken from the till. A neighbour, Daniel Price, claimed that he had heard breaking glass at around midnight. He said he had been watching a film and had thought the noise was part of it. Another witness, a taxi driver, told police that a man in a dark jacket had been waiting outside the bakery for almost an hour. She insisted that she would recognise him if she saw him again. A local teenager was questioned on Saturday, but he denied having anything to do with the crime and was later allowed to go home. Detective Sergeant Lena Ortiz said the investigation was still at an early stage. She explained that the bakery's camera had not been working for weeks, and she asked anyone with information to give a statement.
- a
Ruth Mason said she had closed the shop later than usual.
- b
According to the owner, the thief got in through the back door.
- c
Daniel Price called the police as soon as he heard the noise.
- d
At first, Daniel Price thought the noise was part of the film.
- e
The taxi driver said the man had been waiting outside for a few minutes.
- f
The teenager admitted that he had taken the money.
- g
The police have found the man in the dark jacket.
- h
The bakery's camera recorded the break-in.
6
Write: a news report
Write a short news report.
Write a short news report (120–150 words) about an incident in a town, real or invented: a theft, a flood, a lost dog that was found… Report what at least three people said. Use a range of tenses: had + past participle, had been + -ing, was being + past participle, would have, must have. Word box: witness · statement · suspect · investigation · deny · admit · claim · insist Example: A witness claimed that she had seen the suspect earlier that day. The suspect denied knowing anything about it.
Suggested minimum: 120 words
0 words · aim for at least 120
Spotted a mistake in this lesson?· tell us the exercise and item
Revise with a game
This lesson's own words and questions. Play on your own, or in teams on the classroom screen.
- Step UpAnswer the lesson's questions to climb to the top.
- Pair UpMatch the lesson's words to their meanings against the clock.
- SnapA word and a meaning: do they go together? Answer fast.
- Fix ItFind the mistake in each sentence, then correct it.
- Quiz BoardTeams choose questions worth 100 to 500 points.
- Retro arcadeWord Invaders, Word Snake, Word Maze and Word Crossing: classic arcade games with the lesson's words.
Glossary
The 17 words and phrases this lesson teaches, in 2 sets.
Crime and investigation
- crime
- an action that is against the law
- theft
- the crime of stealing something
- thief
- a person who steals something
- steal
- to take something that belongs to someone else
- police
- the people whose job is to stop crime and catch criminals
- witness
- a person who sees a crime or an accident happen
- statement
- an official written or spoken account of what someone saw or knows
- suspect
- a person who the police think may have committed a crime
- investigation
- the process of trying to find out the facts about a crime or a problem
Reporting verbs
- deny
- to say that something is not true, especially that you didn't do something
- admit
- to agree, often unwillingly, that you did something wrong
- claim
- to say that something is true, although you can't prove it
- insist
- to say firmly that something is true, especially when others don't believe you
- explain
- to give the reasons for something or make it clear
- warn
- to tell someone about a danger or a problem
- complain
- to say that you are unhappy about something
- agree
- to have the same opinion as someone else
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