Reported Speech

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Reported Speech




Reported Statements


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.

Watch my reported speech video:


Here's how it works:

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 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 she liked ice cream






Tense

Direct Speech

Reported Speech



present simple

“I like ice cream”

She said (that) she liked ice cream.



present continuous

“I am living in London”

She said she was living in London.



past simple

“I bought a car”

She said she had bought a car OR She said she bought a car.



past continuous

“I was walking along the street”

She said she had been walking along the street.



present perfect

“I haven’t seen Julie”

She said she hadn’t seen Julie.



past perfect*

“I had taken English lessons before”

She said she had taken English lessons before.



will

“I’ll see you later”

She said she would see me later.



would*

“I would help, but..”

She said she would help but...



can

“I can speak perfect English”

She said she could speak perfect English.



could*

“I could swim when I was four”

She said she could swim when she was four.



shall

“I shall come later”

She said she would come later.



should*

“I should call my mother”

She said she should call her mother



might*

"I might be late"

She said she might be late



must

"I must study at the weekend"

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


* doesn’t change

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

Okay, 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. Confused? Sorry, maybe this example will help:

So, to look again at the example:
•direct speech: "where do you live?"

•She asked me where I lived.


Do you see how I made it? 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.

How about another example:

•direct speech: "where is Julie?"

•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.





So much for 'wh' questions. But, what if you need to report a 'yes / no' question? We don't have any question word to help us. It's easy, instead use 'if':

•direct speech: "Do you like chocolate?"

•She asked me if I liked chocolate.


No problem? 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.







Reported Requests

There's more! What if someone asks you to do something (in a polite way)? For example:

•direct speech: "Close the window, please"
•or: "Could you close the window please?"
•or: "Would you mind closing the window please?"
•


All of these requests mean the same thing, so we don't need to report every word when we tell another person about it. We simply use 'ask me + to + infinitive':

•reported speech: She asked me to close the window






Here are a few more examples:





Direct Request

Reported Request



“Please help me”

She asked me to help her.



“Please don’t smoke”

She asked me not to smoke.



“Could you bring my book tonight?”

She asked me to bring her book that night.



“Could you pass the milk, please?”

She asked me to pass the milk.



“Would you mind coming early tomorrow?”

She asked me to come early the next day.





To report a negative request, use 'not':

•Direct speech: "Please don't be late"
•Reported speech: She asked us not to be late.


Reported Orders

And finally, how about if someone doesn't ask so politely? We can call this an 'order' in English, when someone tells you very directly to do something. For example:

•Direct speech: "Sit down!"


In fact, we make this into reported speech in the same way as a request. We just use 'tell' instead of 'ask':

•Reported speech: She told me to sit down









Direct Order

Reported Order



“Go to bed!”

He told the child to go to bed.



“Don’t worry!”

He told her not to worry.



“Be on time!”

He told me to be on time.



“Don’t smoke here!”

He told us not to smoke there.

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REPORTED (= INDIRECT) SPEECH



1. Is the reporting verb in the past form (said, told,...) you have to change the tense.

(Steht das reporting verb in der Mitvergangenheit (said, told,...) ändert sich die Zeitform.)



Direct speech
Indirect speech
Direct Speech
Indirect speech






Present simple
Past simple
go
went






Present progressive
Past progressive
am/is/are going
was/were going






Past simple
Past perfect
went
had gone






Past progressive
Past perfect progressive
was/were going
had been going






Present perfect simple
Past perfect
has/have gone
had gone






Present perfect progressive
Past perfect progressive
has/have been going
had been going






Future
Conditional I
will go
would go






Example: Peter said: "Carol is a nice girl."

Peter said (that) Carol was a nice girl.




2. When you form the reported speech you have to pay attention that the pronouns refer to the correct person.

(Bei der Bildung der reported speech ist darauf zu achten, dass sich die Fürwörter auf die richtige Person beziehen.)

Examples: Susan said: "My parents are clever scientists."
Susan said (that) her parents were clever scientists.

Tom said: "I like PE best."
Tom said (that) he liked PE best.


They said: "We went swimming with our friends."
They said (that) they had gone swimming with their friend.

Betty said: "Sam told me the truth."
Betty said (that) Sam had told her the truth.




Direct speech
Indirect speech

She said
I - my - me
she - her - her
He said I - my - me he - his - him
They said
they - their - them
we - our - us



You and your:

They told her / him / me / them / us: "George loves you."
They told her / him / me / them / us (that) George loved her / him / me / them / us.

They told her / him / me / them / us: "George loves your sister."
They told her / him / me / them / us (that) George loved her / his / my / their / our sister.

They told her / him / me / them / us: "You are clever."
They told her / him / me / them / us (that) she / he / I / they / we was / were clever.



3. Expressions of time and place must also be changed.

(Zeit- und Ortsangaben ändern sich ebenfalls.)


Direct speech
Indirect speech





Time
now
then


today
that day


yesterday
the day before


tomorrow
the next / following day


last week, month,...
the previous week, month,...


next week, month,...
the following week, month,...





Place
here
there


this
that


these
those






Examle: She said: "I have already seen Carol today."

She said (that) she had already seen Carol that day.





Source: www.perfect-english-grammar.com