Scribd
Upload
224 views2 pages

Reported Speech

The document explains how tenses change when reporting direct speech as indirect speech. It states that normally the tense is one tense back in time from the direct speech tense. It then provides examples of how different tenses such as simple present, present continuous, present perfect, past simple, past perfect, and present perfect continuous would change when reported. It also notes that the tense does not need to change if the reporting verb is in the present or if the statement is still true. Additionally, it specifies that modal verbs like might, could, would, should, ought to do not change in reported speech.

Uploaded by

Adrian Măgheruşan
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
224 views2 pages

Reported Speech

The document explains how tenses change when reporting direct speech as indirect speech. It states that normally the tense is one tense back in time from the direct speech tense. It then provides examples of how different tenses such as simple present, present continuous, present perfect, past simple, past perfect, and present perfect continuous would change when reported. It also notes that the tense does not need to change if the reporting verb is in the present or if the statement is still true. Additionally, it specifies that modal verbs like might, could, would, should, ought to do not change in reported speech.

Uploaded by

Adrian Măgheruşan
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

REPORTED SPEECH TENSE CHANGES Normally, the tense in reported speech is one tense back in time from the

tense in direct speech: She said, "I am tired." She said that she was tired.

The changes are shown below: Simple present "I always drink coffee", she said Present continuous "I am reading a book", he explained. Present perfect "I have been to Spain", he told me. Past Simple "Bill arrived on Saturday", he said. Past perfect "I had just turned out the light," he explained. Present perfect continuous They complained, "We have been waiting for hours". Past continuous "We were living in Paris", they told me. Future "I will be in Geneva on Monday", he said Future continuous She said, "I'll be using the car next Friday". Simple past She said that she always drank coffee. Past continuous He explained that he was reading a book Past perfect He told me that he had been to Spain Past perfect He said that Bill had arrived on Saturday Past perfect He explained that he had just turned out the light. Past perfect continuous They complained that they had been waiting for hours. Past perfect continuous They told me that they had been living in Paris. Present conditional He said that he would be in Geneva on Monday. Conditional continuous She said that she would be using the car next Friday.

NOTE: 1. You do not need to change the tense if the reporting verb is in the present, or if the original statement was about something that is still true, e.g. He says he has missed the train but he'll catch the next one. We explained that it is very difficult to find our house. 2. These modal verbs do not change in reported speech: might, could, would, should, ought to, e.g. We explained that it could be difficult to find our house. She said that she might bring a friend to the party.

Can May Must Here Now This these today tonight yesterday

Could might Had to there Then That those That day That night The day before

2 days ago 2 days before Last week The week before

You might also like