Shortened clauses

Shortened clauses are common in written language. The shortened clause is often separated from the main sentence with a comma:

Wanting to do something different with her life, Ashley decided to quit her office job.

Vs.

Because Ashley wanted to do something different with her life she decided to quit her office job.

A negative shortened clause begins with the word not: 

Not having checked his calendar, Andy forgot all about the meeting.

The verb of the shortened clause in the active sentence takes the –ing form: 

The 49-year-old man stalking the actress was arrested yesterday.

The verb of the shortened clause in the passive sentence takes the 3rd form:

The strawberries sold at the market were very sweet and tasty.

Having completed the marathon, Shawna was exhausted but happy.

 

Having been warned about the dangers, they proceeded with caution.

In concise written expression, a relative clause and a clause expressing time or cause often become shortened clauses (looking after). In this case, the verb form changes and some words may be omitted:

The woman looking after the unruly dogs refused to keep them in check.

Vs.

The woman, who was looking after the unruly dogs, refused to keep them in check.

Indirect speech

When reporting what someone has said, you can use either quotation marks (direct speech) or that clause (indirect speech). In British English, single quotation marks (‘) are most often used, and in American English, double quotation marks (“). A direct quote is separated from the reported clause with a comma. Note that a comma comes inside the quotation marks if the sentence starts with a direct quote. (‘I need to think about it for a minute,’ said Sarah.):

Sarah said, ‘I need to think about it for a minute.’ 

In indirect speech, there is always a reporting clause (Sarah said) and a reported clause that starts with the word that (that she needed to think about it for a minute). However, the conjunction that can also be omitted:

Sarah said that she needed to think about it for a minute.

Tenses are not changed in a reported clause if the reporting clause is in the present tense (present, perfect, future):

Leo says that you can easily do it if you just keep trying.

Compared to direct speech, indirect speech usually changes the tense (was -> had been), pronouns (I -> she, my -> her), qualifiers of place and time (yesterday -> the day before) and word order in questions:

Sarah told me that she had been at the beach with her friends the day before.

Indirect questions have a direct word order, i.e. the subject comes before the verb. Note that there is no question mark in an indirect question: 

Jackie asked me why I always insist on being first everywhere.