BE: Why Reported Speech is a Business Fluency Unlock
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This is the Business English Podcast. Why reported speech is a business fluency unlock.

Welcome to the Business English podcast from All Ears English. Get the English skills you need to achieve your dreams in global business. For a presentation, a meeting, or your office party, this is Real Business English with your favorite American hosts, Lindsay and Michelle, coming to you from New York City and Colorado, USA. Welcome to the Business English podcast from All Ears English.

It's amazing when you can focus on your goals and let all distractions fall away. Announcing our B2C1 Fluency Course Bundle, available this week only. In B2, you learn to make your conversations interesting, and then you move on to C1, where you add nuance, sophistication, and precision to your language. Get all of this for $20.25 and save up to $200 off the normal price.

at allersenglish.com/bundle. Jump in now because the special bundle price goes away February 2nd at midnight. That's allersenglish.com/bundle. Hey there, Michelle. How are you doing? Good, Lindsay. How are you? I'm good. Michelle, do you like to tell stories? Yes.

yes i definitely like i like to tell stories i'm one of those people i mean i would assume you are too based yeah what my jobs are i like to tell stories for sure i like to bring people into what happened i usually have varying results in terms of telling good stories or not so good stories um yeah i think we all do i know there are people who are just

amazing storytellers and then there are people who just go on and on and they it's too much detail there's such it's such a craft it's such a craft michelle um do you think that stories are useful in the business world what do you think oh absolutely right because we always well either you want to connect with someone or maybe you just need to actually tell them for

business purposes, something that happened. Oh yeah. It's huge. I mean, I can imagine scenarios like we've come back from a conference and we want to share things with our coworkers who maybe didn't go to that conference. You had a meeting with a client, you want to share it. You talk to your boss, you need to share something. There's so much there to share in terms of stories. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So today we are going to talk about an important

you can share something that happened with your coworkers. And Lindsay, this is huge. Lindsay, what is it? - I think some of our listeners have heard of this, but it's always good to revisit it. It's called reported speech.

And this is actually something that we teach in our C1 course, because once you get to the really high levels, there are certain special, super advanced ways to report speech, like to tell someone what someone else said, essentially. And, you know, why did I mention our C1 course, Michelle? What does that have to do with things today?

Yeah, well, because we have something very special coming up. So hang out until the end of this episode because we have a special deal on our bundle. So that's our B2 and C1 course together. So this is for 2025, but the deal ends February 2nd. So listen to the end to hear what it is. Yeah, listen in and I'll give you the link at the end of the episode, as well as you'll find out exactly how much you'll save when you buy the two courses together this week to set yourself up for success in the new year. Okay.

So coming back to work, Michelle, what do we need to know here about reported speech? Yeah, well, I mean, you may need to share something that happened, whether it's connecting with coworkers over your weekend or sharing what happened in a meeting, like Lindsay said, maybe a conference that somebody didn't go to that you need to tell them about. I mean, this is so important for work. Yes. So let's talk about how it's done, right? And what do we do, Michelle? What tenses, what grammar tenses do we use here?

So, we use the past tense to talk about what we said and then we use the same tense

as used in the story when we're quoting. So that might sound a little confusing. Don't get scared. Stay listening. Yeah. We'll have examples here. Plenty of examples. Yes. And so this is when you need to say what somebody said, right? You're at this meeting and the boss said this and he said that, right? And we're going to talk about two interesting ways to do this today. In the C1 course, we teach many more ways.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, many, many, right? So but we're just going to focus on two today. Yeah, because that's kind of a marker of a C1 student. There's not just two ways to do it, you know, other ways to do it. So we don't have time to get into all that today, you will have to get into the course to do that. But that takes a process, a learning plan, a study plan, and get it really getting into the true lessons, right? That's another level of study. But for today, just go and went. All right, Michelle, tell us more.

Yeah. So we often use go and or went instead of said, right? So it,

It could be a little bit more casual, right? So this would be for, you might not say this to the big, big boss, right? But it depends on your work culture, of course, but it can still be used at work. So let's give an example. Yeah. Okay. So for example, I explained the spreadsheets at the meeting and after Hadley took me aside, she goes, that was great, but I think you got some figures wrong. Can I take a look? And I went, I'm confident everything is accurate. Yeah. Yeah.

So really interesting, right? Important what you said, Michelle, this is more casual. And at All Ears English and Business English, we believe that we bring our whole selves to work. There are moments in which we do want to be a little more casual at work. We're not robots, right? Yeah, right. Exactly. Yeah. So here you said she goes, right? So this is interesting. You didn't use the past tense. So you can either for said, you can say go or

or went. Yeah. Isn't that interesting? Yeah. That's very interesting. So it was when obviously the past tense. Yeah. And what do you think though? Why do you think I chose in this moment? She goes instead of she went, uh,

I think you're bringing me in. You're bringing me in. Exactly. I'm bringing you in. That's what I'm doing. You're bringing me into the story. And so, but one other interesting point to note is what we said, that reported speech, the actual quote that you told me she said was in the tense that she used it. Right. Yes. Yes. Because so I'm directly quoting her, right? A direct quote. Love it.

Exactly. So there you go. So here we are reporting. So in our C1 course, Jessica gives a lot of examples of how one story would sound completely different depending on if reported speech is or isn't used. And it's so much more interesting to use reported speech because like we said, it sucks the listener in. It sucks the listener in. And that's what that really is. That's what you have to figure out how to do when you're telling stories.

And you know, the stakes get even higher when you start giving speeches. Maybe if you become a company leader, maybe you start doing keynotes. You get to that point in your career, which many of our listeners are probably headed to, going to conferences, giving keynote speeches, giving presentations in front of your industry.

This is where the stakes get really high in terms of our storytelling abilities, right? This comes from our lesson on pet peeves where Aubrey interviews Mal and reported speech is frequently used. So I love that. I love that. Yes, definitely. It was a great episode, great interview. One thing that we do in all of our courses is we always interview native speakers, right? And we bring those interviews. We make lessons based on those interviews. You get that real English. Love it.

So Michelle, what else do we need to know here?

So as we were saying, we talk about using reported speech with go and went. And so, yeah, even though we generally do use the past to start reporting, we do use go as an exception. We use go and went interchangeably. So let's do just an extra example. And then we're going to get into we'll tell you a little bit about this special deal on this bundle. OK, so here is an example.

She called me and I went, I have to meet you downstairs right now. So I go, why? And she went, it's a surprise. Turns out it was a surprise party. I was shocked. Yeah, a lot of go and went. Yes, a lot of go and went. Yeah. We're not physically going anywhere, right? That's not what we're talking. Don't get confused because this person is moving downstairs for the surprise party. That's not what we're talking about though, right? It's about, I said something. Right.

Right? Right, right, right. Exactly. So guys, we know that there may be a disconnect between how much English you know and how much, how confident you feel actually using it. So that's why we created our method based off of real English conversations. And that's what I love about our courses. We don't use this textbook English, right? We actually take it from real conversation. That

conversations because that textbook English that's not going to work right Lindsay exactly and it's always a fun challenge for us to figure out how to do this right how do we go and take these native conversations and turn them into the key lessons in our courses and we're now just just barely getting started on our brand new course which will be coming out later this spring professional English level one

So there will be more to come there. But for today, Michelle, we want to mention the special offer that is available this week only. What is it? All right. So this bundle for the new year, you can get the B2 and C1 courses together. And this is what you need for 2025, guys. Save when you buy them together and you can save up to $100 on the basic plan and save $200 on the personal coach plan.

Yeah, and the reason there is that much savings is that here is an offer to buy the bundle buying two courses together Normally we don't offer this we only offer bundles a few times a year and any other time of the year outside of the promo period you of course have to buy the courses individually so that's why the savings is so great guys

The offer ends at midnight on February 2nd. And again, at that point, after you miss that, you have to buy them separately. So if you know that you are heading in that direction of E2 and then C1, might as well buy them. You have lifetime access to the lessons and the materials. Might as well get in and have that bundle ready for you. And Michelle, where can our listeners go to get it?

All right, guys, go to allearsenglish.com slash bundle. That's B-U-N-D-L-E. All right. It's a good deal for sure. So let's do a quick role play just to give another quick example of this reported speech. And then we will be out for today. All right. All right. So Lindsay and I are coworkers and I just attended a meeting that I and I'm sharing what happened with Lindsay. All right. Here we go. So how was the meeting?

It was interesting. Ooh, do tell. Well, it started off okay, but then Tess goes, I have news. I'm actually leaving the company. No. Yes. So everyone was shocked. I went, Tess, what are you talking about? And she goes, yep, I'm moving and switching companies. Rich goes, what will we do without you? And Tess just shrugs. That is wild. I know.

nice so you're really pulling me into the drama here right the scenario and you're kind of recounting every moment of the interactions which there there are dramatic moments like this when we want to do that right we want to bring moments to life and this is a perfect example yeah absolutely all right so let's go through it so uh i said well it started off okay but then tess goes i have the

news, I'm actually leaving the company and I'm using the tense that was actually used, right? I'm not changing the quote. Yeah. And this is really good for listening skills too. So for our listeners, as you're listening to native speakers, maybe you're having a hard time understanding, look for this because you can anticipate that a quote is coming right after goes.

Right? Yes. Right. Exactly. Yeah. You're queuing up the quote. So it's kind of another signpost that we can listen for to get our bearings. If we're really just not following what people are saying, it's a really great way to do that.

Okay. Absolutely. And then, um, I said, uh, so everyone was shocked. I went, Tess, what are you talking about? And she goes, yup, I'm moving and switching companies. Good. And then rich goes, what will we do without you? And Tess just shrugs. Yeah. Yeah. So I think when the, when the words, I think the time that we're using these direct quotes are when the words really matter. Right. Mm-hmm.

When maybe the drama matters or the words really matter. If it's more the circumstances that matter more, I might use different tenses to report the speech. Yes, I think so, too. I think this is just going to be huge for our listeners to be able to describe what's happening, what somebody said, what you know, how an interaction went. It just really pulls people in and it's going to get you to be that great storyteller. Yeah.

Yeah, this is what they call, I always hear the word in the tech world, which this word kind of annoys me, but I'm going to use it here. It's an unlock, right? It's a fluency unlock. If we can get this, if we can master reported speech, it's one of those things and storytelling like this, it's one of those things at the highest levels of fluency that unlocks other levels of connection, right? And confidence. I love it. Definitely. I love it too. All right, guys. So remember, we have this great...

great bundle coming up and the offer ends February 2nd at midnight. So where should our listeners go to get in on this bundle with the B2 and C1 courses together? Yes. Go over to allearsenglish.com slash bundle. That is allearsenglish.com slash B-U-N-D-L-E. All right. Great stuff, Michelle. Thanks for being on the mic with me today. Oh, thank you, Lindsay. And thanks guys for listening. Talk to you soon. Bye. All right. Bye. Bye.

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