4.2.3.8. Things I thought, or said or at least wished, and maybe even tried

There is one last type of sentence pattern involving sentences with two clauses which is essential for you if you are to be a basic speaker. These are sentences with verbs such as “say”, “ think”, “believe”, “desire”, “want”, “wish”, “know”, etc. as in the following English examples:

• This man said, “Bring me my oxen.”
• This man says, “I am ploughing.”
• This man says that he is ploughing.
• This man is thinking, “I am tired.”
• This man thinks that his field is large.
• This man wants to rest.
• This man is trying to rest.
• This man wishes he could rest.
• This man knows how to plough.
• This man knows that his oxen are tired.

In these examples, the underlined portion is a mini-sentence within the larger sentence. Notice that in some cases the mini-sentence is in quotation marks. This is referred to as direct discourse. The other mini-sentences, the ones not in quotation marks, are examples of indirect discourse. There is a lot that I could say about what distinguishes direct from indirect discourse. Suffice it to say that you may find that another language uses indirect discourse where English uses direct discourse, or vice versa.

Techniques: You can use the pictures you have been using all along, or you might want to get some new pictures that have a lot going on in them, such as those in the children's Waldo series. The LRP will choose a person or animal in the picture and tell you what that animal or person is thinking or saying. For example, she might say “Before this picture was taken, this man said, 'I have a big field to plough',” or perhaps, “This man is thinking that it might rain and he will have to go home,” or possibly “This man knows that he has a lot of work to do.” Your job is to point at the man who would have made such a statement or thought such a thought.

The example “This man is trying to rest” is a bit different from the others, but an important thing to be able to understand and, quite soon, to use in speech. The LRP can use TPR for this, instructing you to try to do things that are actually not possible (“Try to pick up the fridge”).