You can report an offer, a promise, advice or a suggestion without repeating the speaker's exact words. Choose a verb that fits the message, then use the pattern that goes with that verb. Offered to help, advised someone to wait and suggested waiting do different jobs.
Say tells you that someone spoke. A verb such as offer, deny or advise also tells you what kind of message it was. You need both the right meaning and the right grammar.
| Original words | Report | What the verb adds |
|---|---|---|
| "I can carry that parcel for you." | Leo offered to carry the parcel. | He said he was willing to do it. |
| "You should keep a copy." | Ana advised me to keep a copy. | She gave me advice. |
| "I didn't move the chair." | Omar denied moving the chair. | He said he had not done it. |
A report does not have to copy every word of the original sentence. Pronouns and time or place words must still fit the person and situation. For example, your file can become my file when someone reports words addressed to them. For those changes, see Reported statements: tense changes and say or tell.
This page covers the core patterns. Prepositions such as apologise for and accuse someone of are introduced at the end and treated fully in Advanced patterns with reporting verbs. Questions with if, whether or a question word are on Reported questions and requests.
A base verb is the form you find in a dictionary, such as send, wait or be. An infinitive with to is to + base verb. An -ing form is a form such as sending or waiting. A clause has its own subject and verb, as in the office was closed.
| Pattern | Verbs you can learn with it | Example |
|---|---|---|
| verb + to + base verb | agree, claim, demand, offer, promise, refuse, threaten | They agreed to share the cost. |
| verb + person + to + base verb | advise, ask, encourage, invite, order, persuade, remind, tell, urge, warn | She encouraged us to enter the competition. |
| verb + -ing | admit, deny, mention, recommend, suggest | He mentioned seeing a fox. |
| verb + that-clause | admit, agree, claim, explain, promise, say, suggest | She explained that the lift was broken. |
| verb + person + that-clause | assure, inform, persuade, remind, tell, warn | They informed us that the date had changed. |
These are useful groups, not complete lists. A verb can belong to more than one group. Learn a short phrase with each new verb rather than assuming that every reporting verb takes the same form.
With verbs such as offer, promise and refuse, you can put a to-infinitive directly after the reporting verb. In the examples below, the person making the offer, promise or refusal is also the person who would do the action.
A report with an infinitive does not have a second ordinary tense ending. You can change the reporting verb for the time: Nia offers to collect or Nia offered to collect. Do not change collect into collected simply because offered is past.
Put not before to when the promised or agreed action is negative. Compare this with making the reporting verb itself negative.
Use this pattern to report advice, requests, instructions, invitations and warnings directed at someone. The person comes between the reporting verb and to. That person is the one expected to do the action.
A pronoun in this position has the object form: me, him, her, us or them, not I, he, she, we or they. You can also use a name or noun phrase, such as the visitors.
For a negative instruction or warning, place not after the person and before to. Do not add don't inside this infinitive pattern.
Keep the person when using this pattern with tell or advise: told me to wait, advised her to apply. This does not mean that advise always needs a person in every construction. You can advise waiting, with -ing, when you do not name the person here.
Admit, deny, mention, recommend and suggest can be followed directly by an -ing form. Do not replace it with to + base verb in the patterns illustrated here.
With admit or deny in these examples, the person doing the -ing action is the subject of the reporting verb. With suggest, the people who might act can be understood from the situation. Suggested checking does not necessarily mean that the speaker alone would check.
Put not before the -ing form for a negative action. The -ing ending itself does not tell you that the action is happening now: context gives the time.
A that-clause can report a statement, belief, explanation or promise. It has its own subject and verb. This lets you name a different person or use the tense needed for the message.
With verbs such as say and explain, that can be left out. Dan explained the office would reopen in May is also possible. Leaving out that does not remove the subject the office. You do not put quotation marks around an ordinary indirect report.
You can also name the person receiving the information. Tell uses that person directly after the verb; say and explain use to before the person.
Other verbs with person + that include assure, inform, persuade, remind and warn. That can also be omitted in this pattern: they informed us the date had changed.
Tense depends on the message and reporting situation, not only on the reporting verb's name. For detailed tense changes, see Reported statements: tense changes and say or tell. A wanted action after suggest can use should: she suggested that we should book ahead. Formal base-form subjunctive patterns are covered in Advanced verb complementation: nouns, infinitives and that-clauses; they are not a rule that every verb after that must be a base form.
Some patterns let you report similar content in a different shape. Others change who does the action. Read the whole report before choosing.
| Compare | What to notice |
|---|---|
| I promised to return the map. / I promised that I would return the map. | Both report my promise to return it. |
| I asked to use the phone. / I asked Ben to use the phone. | In the first, I want to use it. In the second, I want Ben to use it. |
| She suggested taking a taxi. / She suggested that we should take a taxi. | The that-clause names we; the -ing version leaves the people to context. |
| He warned us that the bridge was damaged. / He warned us not to cross it. | The first reports information about danger; the second tells us what not to do. |
Do not carry a pattern from one verb to another just because the meanings are close. Advise someone to wait works; suggest someone to wait does not. Use suggest waiting or suggest that someone should wait.
Some reporting verbs have a preposition before an -ing form: apologise for, complain about, confess to and insist on. Other patterns also name a person, such as accuse someone of or blame someone for. The to in confess to is a preposition, not the start of to + base verb.
These are a further pattern group, not exceptions that allow any preposition after any verb. Learn each combination. See Advanced patterns with reporting verbs for full explanations, negatives and practice.
✗Kim suggested to postpone the trip.
✓Kim suggested postponing the trip.
Suggest takes -ing or a that-clause for this action, not a to-infinitive.
✗They told to close the gate.
✓They told us to close the gate.
Tell needs a person in this instruction pattern.
✗He denied to know the password.
✓He denied knowing the password.
Deny is followed directly by -ing, not to + base verb.
✗She said me that the room was ready.
✓She said to me that the room was ready.
Use to before the person with say, or use told me.
See Reported statements: tense changes and say or tell for pronouns, time words and tense; Reported questions and requests for reported questions; Advanced patterns with reporting verbs for reporting verbs with prepositions; and Advanced verb complementation: nouns, infinitives and that-clauses for detailed that-clause and subjunctive patterns. For other verbs, see Verb + to-infinitive: want, decide, forget and Verb + -ing: enjoy, stop, avoid.
Eight questions. Choose one answer for each.