Reported Speech

Reported Statements

When do we use reported speech? Sometimes someone says a sentence, for example "I'm
going to the cinema tonight". Later, maybe we want to tell someone else what the first person
said. Here's how it works:

We use a reporting verb like 'say' or 'tell'. If this verb is in the present tense, it's easy.
We just put 'she says' and then the sentence.

Direct speech: I like ice cream.

We don't need to change the tense, though probably we do need to change the 'person' from 'I'
to 'she', for example. We also may need to change words like 'my' and 'your'.

On the other hand, if the reporting verb is in the past tense, then usually we change the
tenses in the reported speech:

Direct speech: I like ice cream.

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 Tense Direct Speech Reported Speech

present simple "I like ice cream." She said (that) she liked ice cream.

present "I am living in London." She said she was living in London.
continuous
past simple "I bought a car." She said she had bought a car OR She
said she bought a car.

past continuous "I was walking along the She said she had been walking along the
street." street.

present perfect "I haven't seen Julie." She said she hadn't seen Julie.

past perfect* "I had taken English She said she had taken English lessons
lessons before." before.

will "I'll see you later." She said she would see me later.

would* "I would help, but…" She said she would help but...

can "I can speak perfect She said she could speak perfect English.
English."

could* "I could swim when I She said she could swim when she was four.
was four."

shall "I shall come later." She said she would come later.

should* "I should call my She said she should call her mother.
mother."

might* "I might be late." She said she might be late.

must "I must study at the She said she must study at the weekend. OR
weekend." She said she had to study at the weekend.

* doesn't change.

Occasionally, we don't need to change the present tense into the past if the information in direct
speech is still true (but this is only for things which are general facts, and even then usually we
like to change the tense):

Direct speech: The sky is blue.

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 Reported Questions

So now you have no problem with making reported speech from positive and negative
sentences. But how about questions?

Direct speech: Where do you live?

How can we make the reported speech here? In fact, it's not so different from reported
statements. The tense changes are the same, and we keep the question word. The very
important thing though is that, once we tell the question to someone else, it isn't a question
any more. So we need to change the grammar to a normal positive sentence.:

Do you see how I made it? The direct question is in the present simple tense. We make a
present simple question with 'do' or 'does' so I need to take that away. Then I need to change
the verb to the past simple. Another example:

Direct speech: Where is Julie?

The direct question is the present simple of 'be'. We make the question form of the present simple
of be by inverting (changing the position of) the subject and verb. So, we need to change them
back before putting the verb into the past simple. Here are some more examples:

Direct Question Reported Question

"Where is the Post Office, please?" She asked me where the Post Office was.

"What are you doing?" She asked me what I was doing.

"Who was that fantastic man?" She asked me who that fantastic man had
been.

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 So much for 'wh' questions. But, what if you need to report a 'yes / no' question? We don't
have any question words to help us. Instead, we use 'if':

Direct speech: Do you like chocolate?

No problem? Here are a few more examples:

Direct Question Reported Question

"Do you love me?" He asked me if I loved him.

"Have you ever been to She asked me if I had ever been to Mexico.
Mexico?"

"Are you living here?" She asked me if I was living here.

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