Out loud, before anything else — don't worry about mistakes, just talk.
Think about the last piece of news you passed on to someone — a friend's move, a shop closing, a mix-up at work. Out loud, tell it now, exactly as you told it then.
Jo: Did you hear about Sam?
Marco: No — what's happened?
Jo: Apparently he's moving to Dublin for work.
Marco: Since when? He never said anything to me.
Jo: I know — he must have been planning it for ages and just not told anyone.
Marco: Or maybe he only heard back last week. Priya said he'd been waiting on the visa for months.
Look at what Jo and Marco do in six short lines. Three completely different jobs, all in one everyday chat about someone else's news. Can you spot all three? Say them before you check.
When you retell someone's words, the grammar shifts one step into the past.
What happens to the verb each time, and what happens to the question? Say it, then check.
1. Your flatmate once told you: "I work better in the mornings." Report it to someone else:
"She said she better in the mornings."
2. A colleague said: "I'll text you the address later." Report it:
"He said he text me the address later."
3. A friend asked you: "Are you still coming to the barbecue?" Report the question:
"She asked I was still coming to the barbecue."
I'll give you three things a friend told me this week. Relay each one out loud to an imaginary third person, starting with "She told me..." or "He said...":
Small words that tell your listener exactly how sure you are — and where the news came from.
Each one hedges the news differently. What's the difference between them? Say it, then check.
1. Your friend Leo told you the café is under new ownership. Attribute it to him:
Leo, the café's under new ownership now.
2. Everyone assumed your flight was delayed because of the strike, but actually it was a technical fault — a surprising truth just revealed:
the delay had nothing to do with the strike at all.
3. Your cousin exaggerates constantly, so you're not fully convinced by his latest story — an unconfirmed, slightly doubtful claim, no named source:
He's, , dating a famous singer — I'll believe it when I see it.
Give me three pieces of news about people you know (or invent them) — real or harmless gossip only:
When you don't know for certain, English lets you guess out loud — with different levels of confidence.
Three guesses, three different levels of confidence. What's the shared structure, and what changes the confidence level? Say it, then check.
1. You arranged to meet a friend at the café at 10. It's 10:15, no message, no reply. Make a confident guess with leave:
"She home late."
2. Your friend swears she told her sister about the move, but the sister looks genuinely shocked when you mention it. Make a confident negative guess with tell:
"She her — look at her face!"
3. Nobody knows why the parcel arrived a week late — a few things might have happened. Make an uncertain guess with get lost:
"It somewhere in the system."
Think of something that happened that you can't quite explain (invent one if you like). Say three guesses out loud:
Everything together, out loud. This is the whole point of the lesson.
Here are three short pieces of invented news, as if a friend just told them to you:
Relay each one aloud to an imaginary third person. Use reported speech AND a distancing marker in every one — "Apparently, she's getting a puppy next month" / "I heard the bakery's closed for good" / "According to them, they might be moving abroad."
Now you invent three short pieces of news of your own (harmless — a move, a job, a surprise, a course). Tell them to me, then listen to how I retell them back to a third person. Did I get the details right? Correct me if I didn't.
Three mysterious situations. Speculate out loud about each one, using must have, might/could have, or can't have:
Write the 3–5 sentence message you'd send a friend, passing on a piece of news and adding your own guess about it ("You'll never guess what I heard..."). Use reported speech, a distancing marker, AND a past deduction; the checker will tell you which ones it finds.
Real conversation never tells you which tool to reach for. Here everything's shuffled.
1. Nobody's sure where the rumour started, but it's all round the office. "___, the whole team's getting new laptops next month."
2. Which is correct?
3. Everyone swears they told Maya about the schedule change, but she still turned up at the old time. "Somebody ___ actually told her."
Each one has a single grammar slip. Say the correct version out loud first, then type the whole sentence.
4. "She said me she was busy."
5. "She asked were we coming to the party."
6. "They must had known about the change."
7. "He can't have knew about the surprise."
Each sentence below is correct but flat. Say a more natural version out loud using today's grammar, then compare:
8. "Somebody told me some news about the office move, but I'm not sure if it's totally true."
9. "I don't know if this is true, but a friend mentioned to me that the shop is closing down."
1. Basic backshift refresher — a friend once said: "I like tea." Report it:
"She said she tea."
2. Basic past simple — yesterday, your cousins (arrive) late for dinner:
"Yesterday, they late for dinner."
3. A colleague once asked you: "Do you need a lift?" Report the question:
"He asked I needed a lift."
4. Grace told you the new café's opening this weekend. Attribute it to her:
Grace, the new café's opening this weekend.
5. The plants are watered, the curtains are open, but there's no answer at the door. Make a confident guess with be:
"Someone here already this morning."
Close the loop: in about a minute, tell me — which of the three tools felt most natural today, the retelling, the distancing markers, or the deductions — and which one still needs a beat of thinking time?
We said: three tools so you can pass on news naturally, without sounding like you're reading a statement. Tick what's true: