Types of Sentence

Assertive Sentence

1. Reporting verb in present or future:
   He says to me,"You are a good girl."
   Rules
   
   • General Rules
   • Says or say are changed into tell/ tells but 'to' an object must be there. After writing tell 'to' is removed.
   • Inverted comma is removed and joined with that.
   Example:
   He tells me that I am a good girl
   I shall tell him,"This is your mistake."
   I shall tell him that that is his mistake.
   
   
2. Reporting verb in past tense:
   Rules
   
   • General rules
   • Join with 'that'
   • 'Said to' is changed into 'told'.
   
   Example:
   Girija Prasad Koirala said to the people,"Here I express my deep sympathy to the bereaved families of helicopter crash."
   
   
3. A sentence containing universal truth:
   Rules
   
   • General rules
   • 'That' is used.
   • Tense is not changed.
   
   Example:
   The teacher said to us,"The sun rises in the east."
   The teacher told us that the sun rises in the east.
   They said,"Christ is worshipped by all Christians."
   They said that Christ is worshipped by all the Christians.

Interrogative Sentence

1. Beginning with verb/ Yes-No question:
   Rules:
   
   • General rules
   • Reporting verb is changed into 'ask' or 'inquire of'.
   • Before reported speech instead of that, 'if' or 'whether' is used.
   • After 'if' or 'whether', reported speech changes into assertive sentence.
   
   Example:
   He said to me,"Have you ever seen me before this?"
   He asked me if I had ever seen him before that.
   
   He said to me,"Will you come to my house tomorrow in the evening?"
   He asked me if I would go to his house the next day in the evening.
   
   
2. Adverb/ Wh question:
   Rules:
   • General Rules
   • Reporting verb is changed into 'ask', 'inquire of' or 'demand'.
   • No need to write 'that', 'if' or 'whether' but if you like you can add 'as to' but it is not compulsory.
   • After 'Wh question', the sentence should be made assertive.
   
   Example:
   Ram said to me."What do you want?"
   Ram asked me what I wanted.
   
   John said to his servant,"When did you go to the station yesterday?"
   John asked his servant when he had gone to the station the previous day.

Imperative Sentence

Rules:

• General Rules
• Reporting verbaccording to the nature of reported speech, it has to be changed into 'order', 'tell', 'ask', 'request', 'urge', 'beg', 'command', 'forbid', 'prohibit', etc.
• Instead of 'that', 'to' is used.
• After 'forbid', 'to' is used and after 'prohibit', 'fro' is used but after 'to', 'v₁' is used.

Example:
The teacher said to me,"Do it at once."
The teacher ordered me to do it at once.

My father said to me,"Read for at least 4 hours daily."
My father advised me to read for at least 4 hours daily.

Optative Sentence

Rules:

• Reporting verb is changed into 'wished', 'prayed', 'blessed', 'cursed', etc.
• Before reported speech, 'that' is used.
• After 'that' subject and 'may' changed into 'might'.
• Instead of exclamation, full-stop is used.

Example:
He said, "May you live long!"
He wished that I might live long.

The teacher said,"May the boys succeed in the examination!"
The teacher wished that the boys might succeed in the examination."

Exclamatory Sentence

Rules:

• Reporting verb is changed into 'exclaimed' and somewhere 'be' or 'did' is used.
• After'exclaimed', to express feeling, Ah, Hurray can be used 'withjoy', 'with sorrow', 'with contempt'.
• 'That' is used.
• Instead of exclamation, full-stop is used.

Example:
He said,"Nonsense!"
He exclaimed that it was nonsense.

The teacher said to the boys,"Well done!"
The teacher admired the boys and exclaimed that they had done well.

He said to me,"Fie! Fie! You mean fellow, you have cheated me."
He called me a mean fellow and exclaimed with content that I had cheated him.

He said,"Oh that! I could be young again."
He eagerly wished that he could be young again.

The teacher said,"Shame! you coward."
The teacher cried shame on him and called him a coward.

He said,"To believe that I'm dishonest."
He expressed great surprise that anyone can believe that he was dishonest.