Reported speech
How does reported speech work?
word changes
questions in reported speech
say and tell
other reporting verbs
word changes
When reporting someone else’s speech, the time, the place and the speakers are often different, so tenses or modals (past/present tenses, will, can etc), words connected with time and place (today, here etc), and pronouns (I, you, he etc) often change:
DIRECT: "I’ll do my homework, here, at the library, tonight." (said on Monday 5th)
REPORTED: She said she would do her homework, there, at the library, last night. (reported on Tuesday 6th)
Verbs used in the original speech generally become more ‘past’ (i.e. they often go back a tense) but some of them stay the same:
present simple > past simple
present progressive > past progressive
past simple > past perfect (or remains as past simple)
present perfect > past perfect
past progressive > past perfect progressive (or remains as past progressive)
past perfect remains as past perfect
can/may/shall/will > could/might/should/would
would, could, should, ought to and might remain the same
must > had to (or remains as must)
If the speech that we report talks about things that you think are still true then the tense doesn’t need to change:
DIRECT: "Sally has broken her leg."
REPORTED: He said Sally has broken her leg.
When we report ‘requests’, ‘offers’, ‘advice’, ‘orders’, and ‘suggestions’ we often use a to-infinitive clause:
DIRECT: "Can you pick me up from the station tonight?"
REPORTED: I asked him to pick me up from the station.
questions in reported speech
The subject comes before the verb. The tense often changes (see above). Note also that question marks are not used in reported questions:
DIRECT: "What’s the matter?"
REPORTED: She asked me what the matter was.
If the question is a ‘yes/no’ question, we use if or whether to report the speech. The auxiliary verb do is not used:
DIRECT: "Do you like Oasis?"
REPORTED: He asked me if I liked Oasis.
say and tell
In reported speech, said followed by that is one of the most common constructions. We cannot say told that. If we want to use told, we have to mention the ‘hearer’ by using an object (him, her, us, Bob etc):
DIRECT: "I love you but I can’t marry you!"
REPORTED: He told me (that) he loved me but couldn’t marry me.
Note! That is often omitted, especially in speech.
other reporting verbs
We can use announce, answer, reply, promise, claim, warn etc instead of the more common say, tell and ask:
DIRECT: "I’ll call you tomorrow."
REPORTED: He promised he would call me today.
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