Reported Speech

Click here for a list of reported speech exercises.

Click here to download this explanation in PDF.

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'. (Click here for

more about using 'say' and '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'.

(As I'm sure you know, often, we can choose if we want to

use 'that' or not in English. I've put it in brackets () to
show that it's optional. It's exactly the same if you use
'that' or if you don't use 'that'.)

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 She said (that) she
I like ice cream
simple liked ice cream.
present She said (that) she
I am living in London
continuous was living in London.
She said (that) she
had bought a car OR
past simple I bought a car
She said (that) she
bought a car.
She said (that) she
past I was walking along
had been walking
continuous the street
along the street.
present She said (that) she
I haven't seen Julie
perfect hadn't seen Julie.
She said (that) she
I had taken English
past perfect* had taken English
lessons before
lessons before.
She said (that) she
will I'll see you later
would see me later.
She said (that) she
would* I would help, but..”
would help but...
 I can speak perfect She said (that) she
can could speak perfect
English
English.
She said (that) she
I could swim when I
could* could swim when she
was four
was four.
She said (that) she
shall I shall come later
would come later.
She said (that) she
I should call my
should* should call her
mother
mother
She said (that) she
might* I might be late
might be late
She said (that) she
must study at the
I must study at the
must weekend OR She said
weekend
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.

Click here for a mixed tense exercise about practise

reported statements.
Click here for a list of all the reported speech exercises.
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.

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.

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 She asked me where the Post
Office, please? Office was.
What are you doing? She asked me what I was doing.
Who was that fantastic She asked me who that fantastic
man? 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
words to help us. Instead, we use 'if':

Direct speech: Do you like chocolate?

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

Click here to practise reported 'wh' questions.

Click here to practise reported 'yes / no' questions.

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 She asked me to bring her
tonight? book that night.
Could you pass the milk, She asked me to pass the
please? milk.
Would you mind coming She asked me to come early
early tomorrow? 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! He told us not to smoke.

Click here for an exercise to practise reported

requests and orders.

Time Expressions with Reported Speech

Sometimes when we change direct speech into reported

speech we have to change time expressions too. We
don't always have to do this, however. It depends on
when we heard the direct speech and when we say the
reported speech.

For example:

It's Monday. Julie says "I'm leaving today".

If I tell someone on Monday, I say "Julie said she was

leaving today".
If I tell someone on Tuesday, I say "Julie said she was
leaving yesterday".
If I tell someone on Wednesday, I say "Julie said she was
leaving on Monday".
If I tell someone a month later, I say "Julie said she was
leaving that day".

So, there's no easy conversion. You really have to think

about when the direct speech was said.

Here's a table of some possible conversions:

now then / at that time

today yesterday / that day / Tuesday / the 27th of June
the day before yesterday / the day before /
yesterday
Wednesday / the 5th of December
last night the night before, Thursday night
last week the week before / the previous week
tomorrow today / the next day / the following day / Friday

Click here for an exercise about using 'say' and 'tell'.

 Click here for a list of all the reported speech
exercises.

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