Reported Speech
When we transform a sentence from direct into reported speech we need to change:
The pronouns
Example:
“I want to go out.” she said
She said that she wanted to go out.
Some words
| direct speech | reported speech |
| now | then |
| here | there |
| this | that |
| these | those |
| tomorrow | the following day |
| next week | the following week |
| yesterday | the previous day/the day before |
| last week | the previous week/the week before |
| come | go |
The verb tenses
If the reporting verb (e.g say, tell etc) is in past tense (said, told, etc) we need to change the verb tense as follows:
| tense | Direct speech | tense | Reported speech |
| Present simple | “I am a student”, he said. “I live in Brazil”, she said. | Past simple | He said (that) he was a student. She said (that) she lived in Brazil. |
| Present continuous | “I am studying for an exam now”, she said, | Past continuous | She said (that) she was studying for an exam then. |
| Present perfect | “We have been to Mexico”, they told us. | Past perfect | They told us (that) they had been to Mexico. |
| Pr. Perfect continuous | “I have been studying English for 10 years”, he said. | Past perf. continuous | He said (that) he had been studying English for 10 years. |
| Past simple | “He found a wallet in the street last week”, she told me. | Past simple/past perfect | She told me (that) he found/had found a wallet in the street the previous week. |
| Past continuous | “We were watching TV at 6:00 yesterday”, they said. | Past cont./ past perf. continuous | They said (that) they were watching /had been watching TV the previous day. |
| Past perf./ past perf. continuous | “She had cooked the dinner by that time”, he said. “They had been walking for hours”, she told us. | Past perf./ past perf. continuous | He said (that) she had cooked the dinner by that time. She told us (that) they had been walking for hours. |
| Will | “I will help you”, he said. | would | He said (that) he would help me. |
| can | “My son can ride a bike”, she said. | could | She said (that) her son could ride a bike. |
| must | “I must tidy my room”, he said. | had to | He said (that) he had to tidy his room. |
Verb tenses may not change:
- When reporting general truths or laws of nature. Example: The teacher said (that) the Atacama is/was a desert.
- When reporting somebody’s word a short time after they were said. Example: He said (that) he still hasn’t finished/hadn’t finished the presentation.
Verb tenses do not change:
- When the reporting verb is in the present or future tense. Example: Jonny has said (that) he loves sea food.
- In 2nd and 3rd type conditional sentences. Example: Anna told me that if she were me, she would study harder.
Reported questions
- Are introduced with the verbs ask, want to know, wonder etc.
- When the direct question begins with a question word, the reported question is introduced with it and has the word order of a statement. Example: “Where are you going”, she asked. She asked where I was going.
- when the direct question begins with an auxiliary verb (be, do have) or a modal verb, the reported question is introduced with if/whether and has the word order of a statement. Example: “Have thought about buying a new car”, she asked me. She asked me if I had thought about buying a new car.
Reported commands:
- Are introduced with the verbs order or tell and are followed by an infinitive.
Example: “Open the door! she told me. She told me to open the door. “Don’t touch this box!”, he ordered. He ordered them not to touch that box.
Do the quiz here: