Grammar: Sentence: Quoting and reporting speech and thoughts

Quoting speech and thoughts

Saying verbs in direct speech: Student problems

Sometimes students use verbs such as speak and talk to introduce direct speech:

"Please do your homework first," Mrs Gong talked to Bozo. 
"Please do your homework first," Mrs Gong said to Bozo.  

Verbs like speak and talk cannot be used to introduce direct or indirect speech, ie they cannot quote or report. Instead speak and talk are used to represent 'speaking' and 'talking' as a type of human behaviour: 

Mrs Gong spoke to Miss Lee about Bozo's school report. 
Dotty and Kitty talked about the movie they had just seen. 

Another common mistake made by speakers of Cantonese is the use of about with the verb discuss:

The children were discussing about the origin of the dragon boat races.
The children were discussing the origin of the dragon boat races.
The children were talking about the origin of the dragon boat races. 

This is a confusing area for learners of English because the verbs argue, debate, discuss, speak and talk appear to mean the same thing yet grammatically they behave differently. The best strategy is for students to learn which of the verbs are followed by about + noun group and which are not: speak about something, talk about something, argue about something but debate something, discuss something.