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Reported Speech: But, If The Reporting Verb Is in The Past Tense, Then Usually We Change The Tenses in The Reported

Reported speech is used to tell someone else what another person said. When reporting a statement in the past tense, the tenses of the original statement are typically changed. For example, "I like ice cream" becomes "She said she liked ice cream." Questions are reported as statements using an introductory verb like "ask." For example, "Where do you live?" becomes "She asked me where I lived." Tense changes follow set rules whether reporting statements or questions.

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73 views5 pages

Reported Speech: But, If The Reporting Verb Is in The Past Tense, Then Usually We Change The Tenses in The Reported

Reported speech is used to tell someone else what another person said. When reporting a statement in the past tense, the tenses of the original statement are typically changed. For example, "I like ice cream" becomes "She said she liked ice cream." Questions are reported as statements using an introductory verb like "ask." For example, "Where do you live?" becomes "She asked me where I lived." Tense changes follow set rules whether reporting statements or questions.

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Hamalahama
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Reported Speech

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.

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.

Reported speech: She says (that) she likes 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'.

But, 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.

Reported speech: She said (that) she liked ice cream.


Tense Direct Speech Reported Speech
present simple I like ice cream She said (that) she liked ice cream.
She said (that) she was living in
present continuous I am living in London
London.
She said (that) she had bought a car
past simple I bought a car OR She said (that) she bought a car.
She said (that) she had been
past continuous I was walking along the street
walking along the street.
She said (that) she hadn't seen
present perfect I haven't seen Julie
Julie.
She said (that) she had taken
past perfect* I had taken English lessons before
English lessons before.
She said (that) she would see me
will I'll see you later
later.
would* I would help, but..” She said (that) she would help but...

can I can speak perfect English She said (that) she could speak
perfect English.
She said (that) she could swim
could* I could swim when I was four when she was four.
She said (that) she would come
shall I shall come later later.
She said (that) she should call her
should* I should call my mother mother
might* I might be late She said (that) she might be late

She said (that) she must study at


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

Reported speech: She said (that) the sky is/was blue.

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. A bit confusing? Maybe this example will help:

Direct speech: Where do you live?

Reported speech: She asked me where I lived.


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?

Reported speech: She asked me where Julie was.

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.

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?


Reported speech: She asked me if I liked chocolate.
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 Mexico? She asked me if I had ever been to Mexico.
Are you living here? She asked me if I was living here.

Exercise 1:
Exercise 2:

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