Imperative sentences express a command, order, request etc.

• Look here.
• Leave me alone.
• Stop it.

Note that we use to-infinitives to report imperative sentences. Imperatives are sentences that express a command, order, request or instruction.

Use appropriate reporting verbs.

1. ‘Stand in line,’ the teacher said to the students.

2. ‘Get your eyes examined,’ mother said.

3. ‘The soup is too hot,’ cried little Einstein.

4. ‘Please wait for me,’ she said to me.

5. ‘He looks old for his age,’ said mother.

6. ‘I am an old friend of yours,’ she said.

7. ‘We do not permit smoking in the kitchen,’ the woman said.

8. ‘It is too hot here,’ the boy said.

9. ‘Whom do you want to meet?’ the receptionist said to me.

10. ‘Take this file with you when you go to the bank,’ she said to him.

11. ‘Do not leave this area,’ the cops said to the people.

12. ‘We can’t trust people like him,’ said mother.

Answers

1. The teacher instructed the students to stand in line.

2. Mother suggested that I should get my eyes examined.

3. Little Einstein complained / exclaimed that the soup was too hot.

4. She requested / told me to wait for her.

5. Mother remarked that he looked old for his age.

6. She said that she was an old friend of mine.

7. The woman said that they did not / do not permit smoking in the kitchen.

8. The boy complained that it was too hot there.

9. The receptionist asked me whom I wanted to meet.

10. She instructed /told him to take that file with him when he went to the bank.

11. The cops instructed the people not to leave that area.

12. Mother remarked that we couldn’t trust people like him.

Worksheet 2

Report the following sentences.

1. ‘I am working hard these days,’ she said.

2. ‘My parents are teachers,’ said the girl.

3. ‘I want to find a job,’ she said.

4. ‘I have found a new job,’ said Priya.

5. ‘I don’t have much time to waste,’ she said.

6. ‘I am going away for a week. I will call you when I return,’ Rahul said.

7. The teacher said, ‘We can’t wait any longer.’

8. Manu said, ‘I was not feeling well when I woke up in the morning, so I didn’t go to work.’

9. She said, ‘I will not talk to you.’

Answers

1. She said that she was working hard those days.

2. The girl said that her parents are / were teachers.

3. She said that she wanted to find a job.

4. Priya said that she had found a new job.

5. She said that she didn’t have much time to waste.

6. Rahul said that he was going away for a week and would call me when he returned.

7. The teacher said that we/they couldn’t wait any longer.

8. Manu said that he was not feeling well when he woke up in the morning, so he didn’t go to work. / Manu said that he had not been feeling well when he woke up in the morning, so he hadn’t gone to work.

9. She said that she would not talk to you.