English B2 · Reported questions and commands
Anglais B2 Sujet 6 4:35 Narration en anglais · Sous-titres anglais + 中文 incrustés
Chapitres
Transcript
B1 taught you to report statements and questions. B2 adds commands, requests, advice and suggestions, everything people say to move other people. The memory hook: the imperative takes off its shouting cap and puts on to. Open the window becomes she told me to open the window. Don't be late becomes they warned me not to be late. Verb, person, to-infinitive: that is the whole machine.
The command verbs report the mood, not just the words. Tell is a command with authority: she told me to open the window. Ask is a request: he asked me to help him. Order is strong authority: the teacher ordered us to stand up. Warn means danger ahead: they warned me not to touch it. Advise is friendly wisdom: she advised me to sleep more. And the negative parks not before the to: warned me not to touch, never to not touch in careful writing, and absolutely never not to not; even grammar has a headache limit.
Pause and choose. They warned me not to touch it. Danger ahead means warn. Told would be a plain command, asked a puzzling request, and suggested would treat the live wire as a lifestyle choice.
The reported question, fully grown. Yes-or-no questions take if or its formal twin whether: she asked if I was ready. Question-word questions keep the wh-word and step the tense back: where have you been becomes he asked me where I had been. The flip stays home: never he asked where had I been. A statement in a question's hat, now with a perfect inside.
Pause and choose. He asked me where I had been. Statement order, and the perfect steps back into the past perfect. Where have I been keeps the flip and the tense, where had I been keeps only the flip, and where I have been forgets to step back. The retelling moves house; everything steps back.
Suggest reports ideas, and it has its own grammar. Let's eat noodles becomes she suggested eating noodles, suggest plus the gerund. Or, formally, she suggested that we eat noodles, with the subjunctive eat, not eats; a fossil worth recognising, not memorising. And the famous trap: never she suggested me to eat noodles. Suggest refuses the person plus to structure. Advise allows it; suggest doesn't. They are cousins, not twins.
Pause and choose. She suggested reviewing the conditionals. Suggest plus the gerund. Suggested us to review and suggested me reviewing both force a person into a structure suggest refuses, and suggested to review dresses the idea in the wrong costume. Wise suggestion, by the way. The lamp agrees.
The licences. Tell needs its person: she told to open the window is impossible; she told me to open it holds. Said doesn't need the person; told does. And commands never report through a that-clause: she told that I open the window is wrong; the infinitive does the work. The not parks before the to: warned me not to be late. Small licences, firmly enforced.
Report the classroom's commands, requests and wisdom. Sit down: the teacher told us to sit down; we were already sitting; she had seen the future. Could you lend me a pen: he asked me to lend him a pen; the pen economy is booming. Don't eat in the lab: they warned us not to eat in the lab; the lab noodles were worth it. Let's review the conditionals: she suggested reviewing them. Wise.
Pause for four checks. She told me to open the window: verb, person, to-infinitive. They warned me not to be late: the not parks before the to. He asked me where I had been: statement order, stepped back. And she suggested eating noodles: suggest plus the gerund, never person plus to. Next topic: past modals, where must and should learn to talk about yesterday.