In English grammar, we use reported speech to convey the words of another person - let's learn how to do it grammatically correct.
When we use direct speech - a speaker's exact words with quotation marks - we can also use indirect speech. The latter case implies that we change the tense and pronouns to indicate that some time has passed.
English
English
She said, "I exercise every day."
She said that she exercised every day.
Rule 1: When turning direct speech into indirect speech, we need to pay attention to changing the pronouns, information about the time and place, and the tense.
English
English
He said, "I saw my sister at the cinema today."
He said that he had seen his sister at the cinema that day.
Note: Typical changes of time and place include:
| Direct Speech | Indirect Speech |
|---|---|
| today | that day |
| tomorrow | the next day |
| yesterday | the day before |
| now | then; at that moment |
| here | there |
| this | that |
| these | those |
| Direct Speech | Indirect Speech |
|---|---|
| today | that day |
| tomorrow | the next day |
| yesterday | the day before |
| now | then; at that moment |
| here | there |
| this | that |
| these | those |
Rule 2: We have to set back the tense by one degree if the introductory clause is in the simple past (e.g. she said). The term for this in English is backshift.
Here is an overview of changing the tenses in English grammar:
| Direct Speech | Indirect Speech |
|---|---|
| simple present | simple past |
| present continuous | past continuous |
| past simple; present perfect simple; past perfect simple | past perfect simple |
| past continuous; present perfect continuous; past perfect continuous | past perfect continuous |
| future + going to | was/were going to |
| future + will; conditional (would) | conditional (would) |
| Direct Speech | Indirect Speech |
|---|---|
| simple present | simple past |
| present continuous | past continuous |
| past simple; present perfect simple; past perfect simple | past perfect simple |
| past continuous; present perfect continuous; past perfect continuous | past perfect continuous |
| future + going to | was/were going to |
| future + will; conditional (would) | conditional (would) |
Note: The verbs could, should, would, might, must, needn’t, ought to, used to normally do not change.
English
English
He said, "I used to smoke."
He said that he used to smoke.
Rule 3: We don't change the tense if the introductory clause is in the simple present (e.g. she says), as it already indicates that the statement is being immediately repeated.
English
English
He says, "I saw my sister at the cinema today."
He says that he saw his sister at the cinema today.
Rule 4: When turning questions into indirect speech, we have to change the pronouns, the time and place information, and set the tense back (backshift). In addition, we use a question word instead of that. If there is no question word, we use whether/if instead.
English
English
She asked him, "Do you know my name?"
She asked him if he knew her name.
Rule 5: When turning demands and requests into indirect speech, we only need to change the pronouns and the time and place information. When it comes to the tenses – we simply use an infinitive.
English
English
He said, "Meet me at the cinema tonight."
He said to meet him at the cinema that night.
Quiz
1/4
Turn the sentence into indirect speech. He said, "I visited a new city yesterday."
0
correct answers.