What is a reported speech?

Reported speech is how we represent the speech of other people or what we

ourselves say. There are two main types of reported speech: direct speech and indirect
speech.
Direct speech repeats the exact words the person used, or how we remember their words:
Barbara said,“I didn’t realise it was midnight.”
In indirect speech, the original speaker’s words are changed.
Barbara said she hadn’t realised it was midnight.
Reported Speech?

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.
Ex: Direct speech: “I like ice cream”.
Reported speech: She says (that) she likes ice cream.
We do not need to change the tense, though probably we
do need to change the 'person' from 'I' to 'she.
I've put that 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.
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.
Ex: Direct speech: “I like ice cream”.
Reported speech: She says (that) she likes ice cream.
We do not need to change the tense, though probably we
do need to change the 'person' from 'I' to 'she.
I've put that 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
“I am living in She said (that) she
continuou
London” was living in London.
s
past She said (that) she
“I bought a car”
simple had bought a car.

past She said (that) she

“I was walking
continuou had been walking
along the street”
s along the street.

present “I haven't seen She said (that) she

perfect Julie” hadn't seen Julie.

She said (that) she

past “I had taken
had taken English
perfect* 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...

She said (that) she

“I can speak perfect
can could speak perfect
English”
English.

present perfect “I haven't seen She said

 (that) she
Julie” hadn't seen
Julie.

She said
(that) she
“I had taken had taken
past perfect*
English lessons before” English
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...

She said
(that) she
“I can speak perfect
can could speak
English” perfect
English.

She said (that)

“I could swim she
could*
when I was four” could swim when
she was four.
 She said (that)
shall “I shall come later” she
would come later.

She said (that)

“I should call my she
should*
mother” should call her
mother

She said (that)

might* "I might be late" she
might be late

She said (that)

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

Reported 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 / he 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 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

She asked me where the

“Where is the Post Office, please?”
Post Office was.

“What are you doing?” She asked me what I was doing.

She asked me who that fantastic

“Who was 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.

Direct Questionk Reported Question

He asked me if I
“Do you love me?
loved him.

She asked me if I
“Have you ever been to
had ever
Mexico?”
been to Mexico.

“Are you living here?”

She asked me if I
was living
 here.

Reported Requests

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

She asked me to help

“Please help me”.
her.

She asked me not to

“Please don't smoke”.
smoke.

She asked me to
“Could you bring my book
bring
tonight?”
her book that night.

She asked me to pass

“Could you pass the milk,
the
please?”
milk.

She asked me to
“Would you mind coming
come
early tomorrow?”
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.
She asked me 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.

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