More about reported Speech

Pronouns

In reported speech, you often have to change the pronoun depending on who says what.

Example

She says, “My mum doesn’t have time today.” – She says that her mum doesn’t have time today.

Tenses

No backshift

Do not change the tense if the introductory clause is in Simple Present (e. g. He says). Note, however, that you might have to change the form of the present tense verb (3rd person singular).

Example

He says, “I speak English.” – He says that he speaks English.

Backshift

You must change the tense if the introductory clause is in Simple Past (e. g. He said). This is called backshift.

Example

He said, “I am happy.” – He said that he was happy.

Direct Speech	Reported Speech
Simple Present	Simple Past
Present Progressive	Past Progressive
Simple Past	Past Perfect Simple
Present Perfect Simple
Past Perfect Simple
Past Progressive	Past Perfect Progressive
Present Perfect Progressive
Past Perfect Progressive
Future I (going to)	was / were going to
Future I (will)	Conditional I (would)
Conditional I (would)

 

Tense back shift (=one step backwards) and examples

Direct Speech	Þ	Indirect Speech
simple present He said, “I go to school every day.”	Þ	simple past He said (that) he went to school every day.
simple past He said, “I went to school every day.”	Þ	past perfect He said (that) he had gone to school every day.
present perfect He said, “I have gone to school every day.”	Þ	past perfect He said (that) he had gone to school every day.
present progressive He said, “I am going to school every day.”	Þ	past progressive He said (that) he was going to school every day.
past progressive He said, “I was going to school every day.”	Þ	perfect progressive He said (that) he had been going to school every day,
future (will) He said, “I will go to school every day.”	Þ	would + verb name He said (that) he would go to school every day.
future (going to) He said, “I am going to school every day.”	Þ	present progressive He said (that) he is going to school every day.
		past progressive He said (that) he was going to school every day
Direct Speech	Þ	Indirect Speech
auxiliary + verb name He said, “Do you go to school every day?” He said, “Where do you go to school?”	Þ	simple past He asked me if I went to school every day.* He asked me where I went to school.
imperative He said, “Go to school every day.”	Þ	infinitive He asked them to go to school every day.

*Note than when a Yes/No question is being asked in direct speech, then a construction with if or whether is used. If a WH question is being asked, then use the WH to introduce the clause. Also note that with indirect speech, these are examples of embedded questions. The situation changes if instead of the common said another part of the very to say is used. In that case the verb tenses usually remain the same. An example of this situation is given belo

Direct Speech	Þ	Indirect Speech
simple present + simple present He says, “I go to school every day.”	Þ	simple present + simple present He says (that) he goes to school every day.

Another situation is the one in which modal constructions are used. If the verb said is used, then the form of the modal, or another modal that has a past meaning is used.

Direct Speech	Þ	Indirect Speech
can He said, “I can go to school every day.”	Þ	could He said (that) he could go to school every day.
may He said, “I may go to school every day.”	Þ	might He said (that) he might go to school every day.
might He said, “I might go to school every day.”
must He said, “I must go to school every day.”	Þ	had to He said (that) he had to go to school every day.
have to He said, “I have to go to school every day.”
should He said, “I should go to school every day.”	Þ	should He said (that) he should go to school every day.
ought to He said, “I ought to go to school every day.”	Þ	ought to He said (that) he ought to go to school every day.

Direct Speech	Reported Speech
today	that day
now	then
yesterday	the day before
… days ago	… days before
last week	the week before
next year	the following year
tomorrow	the next day / the following day
here	there
this	that
these	those

In case you still have doubts about how to report speech, here are some links to 3 grammar movies with examples and explanations which I consider to be very clear


Reported Statements

Reported Questions

Reporting Verbs