Reported speech, also called indirect speech, tells someone what another person said without quoting their exact words: Mike said, "I'm tired" becomes Mike said that he was tired. To change direct speech into reported speech, you usually change the pronouns, move the tense one step back, and adjust words for time and place.
In English, you can use either direct speech or reported speech to tell someone what another person said. Changing direct speech into reported speech, and the other way around, is fairly straightforward once you know the rules. Even so, many learners of English find the topic difficult and confusing.
Reported speech (indirect speech)
Reported speech is also known as indirect speech. It expresses statements, questions, and requests or orders without quoting them word for word, so it has no quotation marks. You find it in conversation and in writing alike.
Reported statements
In a reported statement, the expressions of time and place, the tenses, and the pronouns may differ from the original sentence. Here is an example:
- Direct speech: Mike said, "I'm going to visit Paris tomorrow."
- Reported speech: Mike said that he was going to visit Paris the next day.
In this example, three things change: the pronoun (I becomes he), the tense (am going becomes was going), and the time expression (tomorrow becomes the next day).
Here is another example:
- Jimmy said, "This pizza is great."
- Jimmy said that the pizza was great.
Here, the tense moves from the simple present to the simple past. This shift is called backshift, and the other tenses follow the same pattern:
| Tense in direct speech | Tense in reported speech | Direct speech | Reported speech |
|---|---|---|---|
| Present simple | Past simple | "I work." | She said she worked. |
| Present continuous | Past continuous | "I'm working." | She said she was working. |
| Present perfect | Past perfect | "I have finished." | She said she had finished. |
| Past simple | Past perfect | "I saw it." | She said she had seen it. |
| Past continuous | Past perfect continuous | "I was waiting." | She said she had been waiting. |
You do not have to change the tense if what the original sentence says is still true now.
For example:
- Jan said, "Mrs. Clarke is beautiful."
- Jan said that Mrs. Clarke is beautiful.
You also do not backshift the tense when the reporting verb is in the present tense. For example:
- Alita says, "I love breakfast."
- Alita says that she loves breakfast.
Finally, you can often leave out that in a reported statement.
For example:
- Jan said that Mrs. Clarke is beautiful.
- Jan said Mrs. Clarke is beautiful.
Reported questions
For a yes/no question, use ask and if or whether, and turn the question into a statement: the subject comes before the verb, do or does disappears, and there is no question mark.
- Mom asked, "Do you like the cake?"
- Mom asked me if I liked the cake.
A question with a question word (what, why, when, who, where, or how) does not take if or whether. The question word stays, and the rest of the question becomes a statement.
For example:
- The customer asked, "How are you?"
- The customer asked me how I was.
In both kinds of question, change the expressions of time and place, the tenses, and the pronouns as needed.
Reported requests and orders
Reporting an imperative, a request or an order, is simple, because there is no tense to backshift. Use a verb such as ask or tell, followed by to or not to and the base form of the verb.
For example:
- The teacher said to Randy, "Please close the door."
- The teacher asked Randy to close the door.
- The teacher said to Randy, "Don't run."
- The teacher told Randy not to run.
Once you have written your reported speech, check that the tenses and pronouns agree from sentence to sentence. The Spell Checker points out many grammar mistakes, and the overview of English verbs explains the tenses in more detail.