The teacher said, "Come to the blackboard and solve this problem."

[Tait-ka]

The teacher said, "Come to the blackboard and solve this problem."

I wrote the above sentence.

The scenario is,
The teacher is in class, standing near the blackboard, asking a student* to come to the blackboard to solve the problem which is written on the blackboard.
I used "this" because the teacher is pointing to the problem written on the blackboard.

(* The student could be me or any other student, let's say Tom.)

What would be the reported speech of the above bolded sentence in case 1 and case 2?
Case 1: the student the teacher is addressing is me (TaitKa)
Case 2: the student the teacher is addressing is Tom, for example.

My try:

For case 1:
The teacher told me to go to the blackboard and solve that problem.

For case 2:
The teacher told Tom to go to the blackboard and solve that problem.

Is my try for both cases correct?

 

[5jj]

They are not incorrect for this artificial type of exercise. In real life, I'd be more like to say:

The teacher told me to go to the blackboard and solve the problem.

 

[jutfrank]

What would be the reported speech of the above bolded sentence

I really want to say once again (as poiltely as I'm able!) that what you're trying to do is mistaken. There is no single way to transform sentences like this. This is a false idea that I guess you got from school doing mindless mechanical grammar exercises.

Can I ask why you're asking these questions about reported speech?

 

[Tait-ka]

The teacher told me to go to the blackboard and solve the problem.

Can you also say,
The teacher asked me to come to the blackboard and solve the problem.
?

 

[5jj]

Can you also say The teacher asked me to come to the blackboard and solve the problem?

Note the changes I made to your punctuation.

Please respond to jutfrank's question:

Can I ask why you're asking these questions about reported speech?

 

[Tait-ka]

Can I ask why you're asking these questions about reported speech?

I think the rules for changing direct speech to reported speech that are taught here by teachers and grammar books here in my country are not accurate, or perhaps totally incorrect. So I'm asking here to know how native speakers convert direct speech to reported speech. I also want to know whether the rules we are taught are followed by native speakers or not. By asking these questions here, I hope I'll be able to know which rules are followed by native speakers and which ones are not.

 

[5jj]

Can you also say,
The teacher asked me to come to the blackboard and solve the problem?

You can.

 

[jutfrank]

So I'm asking here to know how native speakers convert direct speech to reported speech.

Please listen carefully to what I'm saying: We do not do this. Only students doing mindless mechanical exercises do this.

What you're not focusing on is why we report things that other people have said. If you want to understand this topic better, you must study real examples uttered by real people doing real reporting.

 

[Tait-ka]

We do not do this.

why we report things that other people have said.

I'm confused.

 

[jutfrank]

I'm confused.

Yes, I know. That's what I'm trying to tell you.

jutfrank talking to Tait-Ka on a language forum:

"When we report, we report the message, or the content of speech, not usually the words themselves. You don't have to follow any complicated rules to do this. Furthermore, we always report for a reason, which also determines the way we do it."

Tait-Ka later telling a friend about what he/she learnt today about reported speech:

"One of the teachers told me that we usually report only the content of the words rather than the words themselves. Also, that I have to think about the reason for reporting as much as how to do it."