"The client said it was broken": reported speech for what a client said
About this lesson
Learners use reported speech to pass on what a client said, asked and really needed in this B1 English for IT lesson plan.
- Grammar
- Said + one tense back (He said the app was broken.), told + a person, asked if, asked why, asked someone to, and changes to time words.
- Topic
- A support call with a merchant who says the app is broken, with words such as a complaint, a clarifying question and on the same page.
- Activities
- An article on the tree swing cartoon, call notes, a call to a product manager, self-checking drills, a chat and open boxes, then a call summary to write and a report to record.
What's inside
Chapter 1Warm-up: Clients and Requests
Chapter 2The Story: The Tree Swing
Chapter 3At Work: "Your App Is Broken!"
Chapter 4Listen: What Bruno Really Needed
Chapter 5Grammar: He Said, She Asked
- Study the scheme: reporting what people saidGrammar schemeTry it
- Choose said, told or askedChoose the optionTry it
- Fill in the gaps: report what they said with the right tense or time wordFill in the gapsUnlock
- Choose the correct reported questionChoose the optionUnlock
- Fill in the gaps: write up the call notesFill in the gapsUnlock
Chapter 6Speak Up: Report the Call
Chapter 7Homework: Your Call Summary
Vocabulary
12 words and phrases from the lesson, each with a picture and audio in edio.
+9 more with pictures and audio in the lessonMore words
- an expectation
- a need
- a quick fix
- a clarifying question
- misunderstand
- report back
- paraphrase
- lost in translation
- on the same page
Grammar: reported speech for client calls
Reported speech passes on someone's words without quoting them. Writing up a call with an upset merchant, learners move each verb one tense back, choose said, told or asked, keep statement order in reported questions and change the pronouns and time words.
Reported speech: what the client said
Report what people said and asked: move the verb one tense back, use statement order in questions, and change the pronouns and time words.
One tense back
After said or told, the verb usually moves one tense back: is becomes was, doesn't work becomes didn't work, has lost becomes had lost, will becomes would and can becomes could. So I can't see my money turns into He said he couldn't see his money.
| Change | They said | You report |
|---|---|---|
| am / is / are → was / were | “The app is broken.” | He said the app was broken. |
| present simple → past simple | “It doesn't work.” | She said it didn't work. |
| am / is / are + -ing → was / were + -ing | “I'm checking the app.” | He said he was checking the app. |
| have / has + past participle → had + past participle | “We've lost some data.” | They said they had lost some data. |
| will → would | “I'll call you.” | She said she would call me. |
| can → could | “I can't see my money.” | He said he couldn't see his money. |
Said, told or asked?
Say needs no person: He said (that) the app was broken. Tell always needs one: She told me the export didn't work. Ask reports questions and requests: He asked if we could add a button. I asked him to call me if it didn't arrive.
Said, told or asked?
| Verb | Pattern | Example |
|---|---|---|
| say | said (that) + sentence | He said (that) the app was broken. |
| tell | told + person + (that) + sentence | She told me (that) the export didn't work. |
| ask: a yes / no question | asked (me) if / whether + subject + verb | He asked if we could add a button. |
| ask: what, when, where, why… | asked (me) what / when… + subject + verb | He asked why the payout was still Scheduled. |
| ask for an action | asked + person + to + verb | I asked him to call me. |
From Fatima's call notes
- He said our app was broken.Bruno: “Your app is broken.”
- He told me he couldn't see his money.Bruno: “I can't see my money.”
- He asked if the app had lost his money.Bruno: “Has the app lost my money?”
- He asked why the payout was still Scheduled.Bruno: “Why is the payout still Scheduled?”
- I asked him to call me if it didn't arrive.Fatima: “Call me if it doesn't arrive.”
Reported questions: statement order
Report a yes-or-no question with if or whether and others with their question word. Both use statement order, with no do and no question mark: He asked if the app had lost his money. He asked why the payout was still Scheduled, not why was the payout.
Questions and time words
In a reported question, use statement order: asked + if / what / why + subject + verb. No do, does or did, and no question mark. You know this order from Do you know if…? Change today, tomorrow and yesterday only when you report on a later day.
Pronouns and time words
Pronouns change with the point of view: I becomes he or she, and you becomes me. Time words change only when you report later, on another day: today becomes that day, tomorrow becomes the next day and yesterday becomes the day before.
| They say | You report |
|---|---|
| I, my | he / she, his / her |
| you, your (to you) | me, my |
| today | that day |
| tomorrow | the next day |
| yesterday | the day before |
Typical mistakes
She said me the export didn't work.
She told me the export didn't work.
say + (that); tell + a person
He asked what was the problem.
He asked what the problem was.
statement order after what / why / when
She told that the page was slow.
She said that the page was slow.
tell needs a person: told me, told us
He asked do we have a test account.
He asked if we had a test account.
if or whether, no do, one tense back
More lessons on this grammar: Reported speech lessons and exercises
Try the reported speech exercises
Try them yourself: these are the same exercises your students do in edio.
What's in the lesson
- 12 auto-checked exercises
- 2 games
- 2 teacher-checked tasks
- 2 real-life documents
- 1 article
- 1 grammar scheme
- 1 set of word cards
- 1 audio clip
- 1 picture
- 1 transcript
The main objectives of this lesson are to:
- report what someone said with the verb one tense back: He said our app was broken. He told me he couldn't see his money.
- choose said, told or asked: She told me the export didn't work, never She said me
- report questions and requests in statement order: He asked why the payout was still Scheduled. I asked him to call me.
- ask clarifying questions on a call and write a call summary for the team: Do you mean the whole app? Could you give me an example?
Lesson 20 is the middle lesson of Users and clients, unit 7 of English for IT B1 · Inside the Team, where learners ask clarifying questions and report what users said. Its reported questions reuse the statement order of lesson 16's indirect questions (Do you know if…?), and lesson 21 closes the unit with a client role-play and a review of the unit's grammar.
Students spin a wheel about clients and unclear requests, learn twelve words and phrases with pictures and audio, from a complaint to lost in translation, and take a picture quiz. A short article on the tree swing cartoon, a joke about a request that changes at every step, comes with a quiz. Fatima's call notes report a merchant who said the app was broken, with the team's clarifying questions, and students decide what six other clients really need. In an AI-voiced call, Fatima reports it to Daniel, the product manager.
The scheme leads into four drills that check themselves, from a choice of said, told or asked to call notes written up days later. In the chat, students report a call with a bakery owner to Beatriz, the product owner; open boxes ask them to pass on what clients, testers and managers said. Homework has a phrase bank, a drag-and-drop support summary and a word match, all self-checking, then a call summary to write and a recording of what someone said at work, both reviewed by the teacher.
- Grammar:
- reported speech · said, told, asked · reported questions
- Topic:
- clients and users · clarifying questions · call notes
Teaching tips
- Play telephone with a client's sentence: whisper The export doesn't work on my phone along a row; the last learner reports it with She said…, and the group compares it with the original.
- Turn the call notes back into direct speech before the listening: learners rebuild Bruno's own words (Your app is broken. Has the app lost my money?), then check how Fatima reports them.
- With support or product teams, bring a real ticket: learners report what the user wrote, add one clarifying question they would ask, and name what the user really needs.
- One-to-one, open with a reported conversation: the learner tells you what a colleague or client said and asked that week, and you note each verb that didn't move back.
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The whole course: English for IT B1 · Inside the Team
24 lessons at B1 for people who build, test or run software, in American English. Learners follow Iryna, a junior developer, through her first year at Kestrel Cloud, a fictional payments startup: standups, tickets, code review, chats across time zones and job interviews. Each lesson is built around a true story from software history.See the course
Unit 1 Hello, team
roles, stacks and first days: the present simple, the present perfect with for and since, question forms
Unit 2 The daily standup
updates and blockers: the present simple and continuous, just, already and yet, have to and need to
Unit 3 Bugs and tickets
clear bug reports: the past continuous, imperatives and the zero conditional, quantifiers
Unit 4 Code review
kind, useful comments: -ed and -ing adjectives, modals for suggestions, the first conditional
Unit 5 How it works
explaining systems step by step: time clauses, the passive, relative clauses
Unit 6 Remote and async
chat, email and time zones: polite requests, future forms, the present perfect continuous
Unit 7 Users and clients
user stories and plain explanations: verb + to or -ing, reported speech, comparisons
Lesson 19As a user, I want…Verb + to or verb + -ing
Lesson 20 · you're here"The client said it was broken"Reported speech for client calls
Lesson 21Explain it in ten hundred wordsComparisons for plain explanations
Unit 8 Your next job
resumes and interviews: used to, the past perfect, the second conditional
