he said i write a letter indirect speech

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Reported speech: indirect speech

Indirect speech focuses more on the content of what someone said rather than their exact words. In indirect speech , the structure of the reported clause depends on whether the speaker is reporting a statement, a question or a command.

Indirect speech: reporting statements

Indirect reports of statements consist of a reporting clause and a that -clause. We often omit that , especially in informal situations:

The pilot commented that the weather had been extremely bad as the plane came in to land. (The pilot’s words were: ‘The weather was extremely bad as the plane came in to land.’ )

I told my wife I didn’t want a party on my 50th birthday. ( that -clause without that ) (or I told my wife that I didn’t want a party on my 50th birthday .)

Indirect speech: reporting questions

Reporting yes-no questions and alternative questions.

Indirect reports of yes-no questions and questions with or consist of a reporting clause and a reported clause introduced by if or whether . If is more common than whether . The reported clause is in statement form (subject + verb), not question form:

She asked if [S] [V] I was Scottish. (original yes-no question: ‘Are you Scottish?’ )

The waiter asked whether [S] we [V] wanted a table near the window. (original yes-no question: ‘Do you want a table near the window? )

He asked me if [S] [V] I had come by train or by bus. (original alternative question: ‘Did you come by train or by bus?’ )

Questions: yes-no questions ( Are you feeling cold? )

Reporting wh -questions

Indirect reports of wh -questions consist of a reporting clause, and a reported clause beginning with a wh -word ( who, what, when, where, why, how ). We don’t use a question mark:

He asked me what I wanted.

Not: He asked me what I wanted?

The reported clause is in statement form (subject + verb), not question form:

She wanted to know who [S] we [V] had invited to the party.

Not: … who had we invited …

Who , whom and what

In indirect questions with who, whom and what , the wh- word may be the subject or the object of the reported clause:

I asked them who came to meet them at the airport. ( who is the subject of came ; original question: ‘Who came to meet you at the airport?’ )

He wondered what the repairs would cost. ( what is the object of cost ; original question: ‘What will the repairs cost?’ )

She asked us what [S] we [V] were doing . (original question: ‘What are you doing?’ )

Not: She asked us what were we doing?

When , where , why and how

We also use statement word order (subject + verb) with when , where, why and how :

I asked her when [S] it [V] had happened (original question: ‘When did it happen?’ ).

Not: I asked her when had it happened?

I asked her where [S] the bus station [V] was . (original question: ‘Where is the bus station?’ )

Not: I asked her where was the bus station?

The teacher asked them how [S] they [V] wanted to do the activity . (original question: ‘How do you want to do the activity?’ )

Not: The teacher asked them how did they want to do the activity?

Questions: wh- questions

Indirect speech: reporting commands

Indirect reports of commands consist of a reporting clause, and a reported clause beginning with a to -infinitive:

The General ordered the troops to advance . (original command: ‘Advance!’ )

The chairperson told him to sit down and to stop interrupting . (original command: ‘Sit down and stop interrupting!’ )

We also use a to -infinitive clause in indirect reports with other verbs that mean wanting or getting people to do something, for example, advise, encourage, warn :

They advised me to wait till the following day. (original statement: ‘You should wait till the following day.’ )

The guard warned us not to enter the area. (original statement: ‘You must not enter the area.’ )

Verbs followed by a to -infinitive

Indirect speech: present simple reporting verb

We can use the reporting verb in the present simple in indirect speech if the original words are still true or relevant at the time of reporting, or if the report is of something someone often says or repeats:

Sheila says they’re closing the motorway tomorrow for repairs.

Henry tells me he’s thinking of getting married next year.

Rupert says dogs shouldn’t be allowed on the beach. (Rupert probably often repeats this statement.)

Newspaper headlines

We often use the present simple in newspaper headlines. It makes the reported speech more dramatic:

JUDGE TELLS REPORTER TO LEAVE COURTROOM

PRIME MINISTER SAYS FAMILIES ARE TOP PRIORITY IN TAX REFORM

Present simple ( I work )

Reported speech

Reported speech: direct speech

Indirect speech: past continuous reporting verb

In indirect speech, we can use the past continuous form of the reporting verb (usually say or tell ). This happens mostly in conversation, when the speaker wants to focus on the content of the report, usually because it is interesting news or important information, or because it is a new topic in the conversation:

Rory was telling me the big cinema in James Street is going to close down. Is that true?

Alex was saying that book sales have gone up a lot this year thanks to the Internet.

‘Backshift’ refers to the changes we make to the original verbs in indirect speech because time has passed between the moment of speaking and the time of the report.

In these examples, the present ( am ) has become the past ( was ), the future ( will ) has become the future-in-the-past ( would ) and the past ( happened ) has become the past perfect ( had happened ). The tenses have ‘shifted’ or ‘moved back’ in time.

The past perfect does not shift back; it stays the same:

Modal verbs

Some, but not all, modal verbs ‘shift back’ in time and change in indirect speech.

We can use a perfect form with have + - ed form after modal verbs, especially where the report looks back to a hypothetical event in the past:

He said the noise might have been the postman delivering letters. (original statement: ‘The noise might be the postman delivering letters.’ )

He said he would have helped us if we’d needed a volunteer. (original statement: ‘I’ll help you if you need a volunteer’ or ‘I’d help you if you needed a volunteer.’ )

Used to and ought to do not change in indirect speech:

She said she used to live in Oxford. (original statement: ‘I used to live in Oxford.’ )

The guard warned us that we ought to leave immediately. (original statement: ‘You ought to leave immediately.’ )

No backshift

We don’t need to change the tense in indirect speech if what a person said is still true or relevant or has not happened yet. This often happens when someone talks about the future, or when someone uses the present simple, present continuous or present perfect in their original words:

He told me his brother works for an Italian company. (It is still true that his brother works for an Italian company.)

She said she ’s getting married next year. (For the speakers, the time at the moment of speaking is ‘this year’.)

He said he ’s finished painting the door. (He probably said it just a short time ago.)

She promised she ’ll help us. (The promise applies to the future.)

Indirect speech: changes to pronouns

Changes to personal pronouns in indirect reports depend on whether the person reporting the speech and the person(s) who said the original words are the same or different.

Indirect speech: changes to adverbs and demonstratives

We often change demonstratives ( this, that ) and adverbs of time and place ( now, here, today , etc.) because indirect speech happens at a later time than the original speech, and perhaps in a different place.

Typical changes to demonstratives, adverbs and adverbial expressions

Indirect speech: typical errors

The word order in indirect reports of wh- questions is the same as statement word order (subject + verb), not question word order:

She always asks me where [S] [V] I am going .

Not: She always asks me where am I going .

We don’t use a question mark when reporting wh- questions:

I asked him what he was doing.

Not: I asked him what he was doing?

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Literary English

Direct and Indirect Speech in English | A Complete Guide

Direct and indirect speech are two ways to report what someone else has said. In direct speech, the exact words spoken by a person are quoted within quotation marks. In indirect speech, the words of the speaker are reported without using their exact words and without using quotation marks. Instead, the reported speech is often introduced by verbs such as “said,” “told,” “asked,” etc. Indirect speech allows us to convey what someone else said without necessarily repeating their exact words, often to provide a summary or to integrate it into a larger narrative.

Direct Speech

Direct speech is also called reporting speech. There are two parts in a sentence in direct speech first part is known as reporting speech (in this sentence we know about reporting person) and the second part which is known as reported speech (indirect narration “example”, or indirect discourse). When we want to describe what someone said, one option is to use  direct speech . We use direct speech when we simply repeat what someone says, putting the phrase between speech marks:

• Saif came in and said, “I’m really happy”.

As you can see, with direct speech it is common to use the verb ‘to say’ and ‘to says’ (‘said’ in the past). But you can also find other verbs used to indicate direct speech such as ‘ask’, ‘reply’, and ‘shout’.

Indirect Speech

In grammar, when we want to report what someone said, without speech marks and without necessarily using exactly the same words, we use indirect speech. It is also known as reported speech. Look at the following sentences:

• Direct speech:  he says, “I am going to school.”
• Indirect speech:  he says that he is going to school.

In above sentences, the reporter delivers the message of the boy using his real words (e.g.“I am going to school.”) In the indirect speech sentence, the reporter delivers his message but in his own words without any change in the meaning. Thus, both direct and indirect speeches are two different ways of reporting a statement of person. In simple words, quoting a person using your own words is called an indirect speech.

Basic Rules for Direct and Indirect Speeches

• When we change direct speech to indirect speech always we will replace inverted commas with word ‘ that’ .
• When we combine reporting and reported speech we use  that  between these sentences.
• If the first part of the sentence does not include word  said  then tense will not be changed.
• At the end of reporting speech if there is a comma then it will be removed.
• Say  always will be changed into  tell .
• Says  always will be changed into  tells .
• Said  will be changed into  told  only in one condition when there is object in reporting speech.
• Direct : You said to Saif, “you are going to Lahore”.
• Indirect : you told Saif that he was going to Lahore. 

Changes in the Person of Pronouns

1 st  person                             2 nd  person                             3 rd  person

Subject                                  Object                                    No change

I, we,                                       you                                         he, she, it,

My, our, us, me                     your                                        they and noun.

• 1 st person pronouns in reported speech are always changed according to the subject of the reporting speech.
• 2 nd person pronouns in reported speech are always changed according to the object of the reporting speech.
• 3 rd person pronouns in reported speech are not changed.

Important word changes

The above rules are mandatory for converting direct speech into indirect speech. Hence, they should be memorized thoroughly. The following examples cover all the aforementioned rules. So, focus on every sentence to know how the above-mentioned rules have been used here.

Some special words will be changed when direct speech changes into indirect speech

• Now into then
• Today into that day
• Yesterday into the previous day
• This into that
• Last night into the previous night
• Tomorrow into the next day
• These into those
• Here into there
• Next day into the following day
• Ago into before
• Come into go
• Will into would
• Shall into should
• May into might
• Can into could
• Good Morning, into greeted
• Good Evening, into greeted
• Good Day into greeted
• Madam into Respectfully
• Sir into Respectfully

Changes in Verbs

If the reporting speech is in present tense or future tense, then no change is required to be made in the verb of reported speech.

Direct Speech:  he says, “I live in Pakistan”.

Indirect Speech:  he tells that he lives in Pakistan.

Direct Speech:  you say to me, “you will go to Lahore”.

Indirect Speech:  you tell me that I shall go to Lahore.

Direct Speech:  I say, “she was ill”.

Indirect Speech:  I tell that she was ill.

How to Make Direct and Indirect Speeches in Different Tenses

Present indefinite  will be changed into past into  past indefinite  tense.

(First form  into  second form)

• Direct:  I said, “I go to school”.
• Indirect:  I said that I went to school.

Present continues  will be changed into  past continues  tense.

(is, am, are  into  was, were)

• Direct:  Raza said, “I am a boy”.
• Indirect : Raza said that he was a boy.

Present perfect  will be changed into  past perfect  tense.

(has, had  into  had)

• Indirect : You told Saif that he was going to Lahore. 

Present perfect continues  will be changed into  past perfect continues  tense.

(has been, have been  into  had been)

• Direct : The guard said to the passenger, “the train has come”
• Indirect : The guard told to the passenger that the train had come.

Past indefinite will be changed into  past perfect  tense.

(second form  into  had)

• Direct : Aslam said, “They played cricket”.
• Indirect:  Aslam said that they had played cricket.

Past continues  will be changed into  past perfect continues  tense.

(was, were  into  had been)

• Direct : The policeman said, “The thief has been stealing for two year”.
• Indirect : The policeman told that the thief had been stealing for two year.

Note :  Past perfect, past perfect continues, future indefinite, future continues, future perfect, future perfect continues tense will not be changed.

Direct and Indirect Speech in Assertive Sentences

Sentences that make a declaration are called assertive sentences. These sentences may be positive, negative, false, or true statements. To convert such sentences into indirect speech, use the rules as declared above except  said  is sometimes replaced with  told . Look at the following examples:

Direct Speech:  She says, “I am writing a letter to my brother.”

Indirect Speech:  She says that she is writing a letter to her brother.

Direct Speech:  She says, “I was not writing a letter to my brother.”

Indirect Speech:  She says that she was not writing a letter to her brother.

Direct Speech:  She said to me, “I am writing a letter to my brother.”

Indirect Speech:  She told me that she was writing a letter to her brother.

Direct and Indirect Speech in Imperative Sentences

Imperative sentences are sentences that give an order or a direct command. These sentences may be in the form of advice, appeal, request, or order. Mostly, it depends upon the forcefulness of the presenter. Thus, a full stop (.) or sign of exclamation (!) is used at the end of the sentence.

When we will be convert these types of sentences into indirect speech, follow the following rules along with the above-mentioned rules:

• Both sentences will be joined with the conjunction
• If in the reported sentence has word do not,  then it will be changed with the word  not to.
• Direct speech : Aslam said, “Do not beat him”.
• Indirect speech: Aslam ordered to not beat him.

The direct verb is changed according to indirect speech in case order the speaker gives a direct command. Then said  will be changed into  ordered  For example:

• Direct Speech:  The father said to me, “Sit down.”
• Indirect Speech:  The father ordered me to sit down.

The direct verb is changed according to indirect speech in case request the speaker gives a request command. Then said  will be changed into  request.

For example:

• Direct Speech:  The man said, “Please show me your pen.”
• Indirect Speech:  the man requested to show him my door.

The direct verb is changed according to indirect speech in case guide the speaker gives a piece of advice. Then said  will be changed into  advised .

• Direct Speech:  The headmaster said, “Write neat and clean.”
• Indirect Speech:  the headmaster advised to write neat and clean.

The direct verb is changed according to indirect speech in case forbade the speaker stopped to do something. Then said  will be changed into  forbade .

• Direct Speech:  The teacher said, “Don’t sit.”
• Indirect Speech:  The teacher forbade to sit.

Optative & Exclamatory Sentences

The sentence, which expresses a prayer, keen wish, curse, happiness etc., is called an  optative sentence . This kind of sentence generally starts with ‘may’ and ‘wish’. Sometimes, ‘may’ remains hidden.

The sentence, which expresses a sudden and deep excitement, wonder, shock, or sorrow, etc., is called an  exclamatory sentence . In this kind of sentence must have exclamation mark (!) at the end of the sentence or in the central of the sentence.

• May you succeed in the test!
• May you get well soon!
•   Would that I was rich!

When we will be converted these types of sentences into indirect speech, follow the following rules along with the above-mentioned rules:

In a prayer  sentence  said  will be replaced by

When we will be changed direct speech to indirect speech always we will be replaced inverted commas  that .

• Direct speech : He said, “May you live long”.
• Indirect speech : He prayed that I might live long.

In a  hope  sentence  said  will be replaced by

When we will be changed direct speech to indirect speech always we will be replaced inverted commas that .

• Direct speech:  The father said, “May my son get first position”.
• Indirect speech:  The father wished that his son might get first position.

In a glad & happy sentence, said  will be replaced by  exclaimed with joy  or  exclaimed with joyfully.  And exclamatory  mark  (!) will be removed.

• Direct speech:  The boys said, “Hurrah! We have won the match”.
• Indirect speech:  The boys exclaimed with joy that they had won the match.

In a sad or sorrow sentence, said  will be replaced by  exclaimed with sorrow  or  exclaimed with sorrowfully.

• Direct speech:  The bagger said, “Ah! I am undone”.
• Indirect speech:  The exclaimed with sorrow that he was undone.

Interrogative Sentences

Which sentences, ask questions, are called interrogative sentences. Every interrogative sentence has question mark (?) at the ends.

• Where are you going?
•   Where did you live?
• Are you want to go with me?

To change interrogative sentences from direct speech into indirect speech, follow the following rules along with the above-mentioned rules:

  When we will be changed sentence direct speech to indirect  Said  will be replaced by  asked .

If interrogative sentence will be started from “ Wh ” mean when, whom, what, where, who, which, why, how, whose when we will be changed sentence direct speech to indirect speech  inverted commas  will not be replaced. Just it will be removed.

If the reported sentence will be started form helping verb, then  if will be used in place of  that .

After the changing sentence mark of interrogation (?) will be replaced with full stop (.).

Direct speech:  He said to me, “Who are you”?

Indirect speech:  He asked me who I was.

Direct speech:  He said to me, “Where are you going”?

Indirect speech:  He asked me where I was going.

Direct speech:  Sunny said to me, “will you help me”?

Indirect speech:  Sunny asked me if I would help him.

Direct and indirect Speech in Universal Sentence

Sentences which have natural truth or universal truth in the part of reported speech are called universal sentences .

• Allah is one.
• Honesty is the best policy.

To change universal sentences from direct speech into indirect speech, follow the following rules along with the above-mentioned rules:

When we will be changed sentence direct speech to indirect  Said  will be replaced by

When we will be changed direct speech to indirect speech always we will be replaced inverted commas with  that .

Always remember that universal truth will never change so we will not be changed reported speech portion.

Direct speech:  The teacher said to the boys, “The earth revolves around the sun”.

Indirect speech:  The teacher told the boys that the earth revolves around the sun.

Direct speech:  Saif said, “Allah is one”.

Indirect speech:  Saif told that Allah is one.

Direct speech:  She said to him, “Honesty is the best policy”.

Indirect speech:  She told him that honesty is the best policy.

Direct speech:  Sunny said to Farrukh, “The sun rises in the east”.

Indirect speech:  Sunny told Farrukh that the sun rises in the east.

Related Posts

• Definition, Structure, and Types of Sentences
• Definition And Types Of Word
• What Are Helping Verbs?
• Active Voice And Passive Voice

Home of English Grammar

Direct and indirect speech

Change into indirect speech

1. John said, ‘I am trying to find a new job.’

2. He said, ‘I wrote a letter.’

3. The girl said, ‘I want something to eat.’

4. The teacher said, ‘Stop writing.’

5. The man said, ‘I have nowhere to go.’

6. The girl said, ‘I have been practicing the violin for six months.’

7. Mother said, ‘I have laid the table.’

8. He said, ‘Who are you?’

9. He said, ‘Are you happy here?’

10. The father said to his son, ‘Go and pay your fee at once.’

11. He said, ‘Let’s go for a drive.’

1. John said that he was trying to find a new job.

2. He said that he had written a letter.

3. The girl said that she wanted something to eat.

4. The teacher asked them to stop writing.

5. The man said that he had nowhere to go. / The man lamented that he had nowhere to go.

6. The girl said that she had been practicing the violin for six months.

7. Mother said that she had laid the table.

8. He asked who I was.

9. He enquired if I was happy there?’

10. The father told his son to go and pay his fee at once.

11. He suggested going for a drive. / He suggested that we should go for a drive.

Rules For Direct And Indirect Speech With Examples And Exercises

English grammar has always remained trickier yet interesting to be learned. It is expected that to learn the English language, one must be able to form sentences or learn the other parts of its speech. In the IELTS examination, even 25% of marks are allotted for GRA (Grammatical Range and Accuracy) . So here we come up with another topic of grammar by adding into the collection of some previous grammar topics.

In today’s article, the topic of direct and indirect speech will be discussed in an elaborative way and its rules, examples, along with some exercises will be given.

What is Direct and Indirect Speech?

▶️ direct speech.

The kind of speech where the message of the sender is reported in the exact same words by the receiver of the message. It is also quoted in the quotation marks.

For example:- He said, “I can cook food.”

▶️ Indirect Speech

A kind of speech where the message of the reporter is reported in some other words but of the same meaning. Here, the message is not quoted in speech marks.

For example:- He said that he could cook food.

I. Rules as per Modal Verb Change

• They said, “ We may go to Canada.”

They said that they might go to Canada.

• She said, “I must finish the work on time.”

She said that she had to finish the work on time.

• Michael said, “I ought to avoid junk food.”

Michael said that he ought to avoid junk food.

II. Rules as per Tense Change

• Direct- John said,” I walk.” (simple present)

Indirect- John said that he walked. (Simple past)

• Direct- Mr. Brown said, “My daughter has left for school.” (present perfect)

Indirect- Mr. Brown said that his daughter had left for school. (Past perfect)

• Direct- They told, “we were living in Paris.” (past continuous)

Indirect- They told that they had been living in Paris. (Past perfect continuous tense)

• Direct- Michael told, “he will be watering the plants .” (Future continuous)

Indirect- Michael told that he would be watering the plants. (Conditional continuous)

III. Rules as per Place & Time Change

• She said, “ I saw him today.”

She said that she had seen him that day.

• He said, “I will see him tomorrow.”

He said that he would see him the next day.

IV. Rules as per Pronouns Change

• He said, “I like your new car.”

He told her that he liked her new car.

• He said, “I write a letter.”

He said that he wrote a letter.

V. Direct and Indirect Speech for Interrogative Sentences

1. The conjunction ‘that' is not used in the indirect speech of interrogation sentences.

2. In Indirect sentence of interrogation, the answer is written in positive or assertive form, rather than the question form, and hence, the sentence ends with..

3. Inverted commas are removed in indirect speech.

4. Use verbs such as, ‘ask', ‘inquire' instead of say or tell.

Examples :-

• Jackson said, “ what is John doing?”

Jackson asked that what John was doing.

• Esha said, “ will she come for lunch?”

Esha asked if she would come for lunch.

• He said to me, “do you like coffee?”

He asked me if I liked coffee.

• They said to me, “how is the weather?”

They asked me how the weather was.

VI. Indirect Speech for Exclamatory Sentences

An Exclamatory sentence is a type of sentence that expresses some joy, sorrow, excitement, or any other kind of emotion. Here are some rules for the indirect speech of exclamatory sentences.

· The imperative sentences expresses advice, request or order. So in order to convert it in indirect, some words need to be added like Requested, advised, suggested, ordered, forbade etc.

• The old man said to him, “always speak the truth.”

The old man advised him to always speak the truth.

• He said to me, “please make some tea for me.”

He requested me to make some tea for him.

• There are exclamatory sentences that express joy or wonder so some words like exclaimed with joy, exclaimed with wonder, exclaimed with sorrow will be added.
• She said, “hurrah! I passed the exam.”
• She exclaimed with joy that she had passed the exam.
• She said, oh! I lost my purse.”
• She exclaimed with sorrow that she had lost her purse.

Take care of the small details of grammar and you will surely be perfect within some time with lots of practice. Hoping that above rules and examples of direct and indirect speech would work well for your practice. Keep working hard.

Best of luck!

Exercises for Competitive Exams

A. direct to indirect speech.

1. Ram said to me, “I am going to Jaipur.”

2. Mohan said to her, “you have completed your work.”

3. Maya said to him, “you can do this work.”

4. “If you don’t keep quiet, I shall shoot you”, she said to him in a calm voice.

5. He said to his father, “please increase my pocket-money.”

6. The boy said, “who dare call you a thief?”

7. She said to him, “why don’t you go today?”

8. Kanwal said, “what a beautiful rainbow it is.”

1. Ram told me that he was going to Jaipur.

2. Mohan told her that she had completed her work.

3. Maya told him that he could do this work.

4. She warned her calmly that she would shoot him if he didn’t keep quiet.

5. He requested his father to increase his pocket money.

6. The boy enquired who dared call him a thief.

7. She asked him why he didn’t go that day.

8. Kanwal exclaimed with wonder that the rainbow was very beautiful.

B. Indirect Speech to Direct Speech

1. She said that her brother was getting married.

2. She exclaimed with sorrow that was a very miserable plight.

3. Dhruv said that he was sick and tired of working in this company.

4. She exclaimed with joy that India had won the Sahara cup.

5. Nita ordered her servant to bring her a cup of tea.

6. She begged me not to go away.

7. She told her that she knew where was everyone.

8. John told me that when he went there, it was raining.

1. She said, “my brother is getting married.”

2. She said, “what a miserable plight it is.”

3. Dhruv said, “I am sick and tired of working in this company.”

4. She said, “hurrah! India has won the Sahara cup.”

5. Nita said to her servant, “Bring me a cup of tea.”

6. “Please don’t go away" , she said.

7. She said to her, “ I know where is everyone.”

8. John said to me, “when you came here, it was raining.”

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Direct and Indirect Speech Exercise

Turn the following sentences into indirect speech.

1.    John said, ‘I am very busy now.’ 2.    He said, ‘The horse has been fed.’ 3.    ‘I know her name and address,’ said John. 4.    ‘German is easy to learn,’ she said. 5.    He said, ‘I am writing letters.’ 6.    ‘It is too late to go out,’ Alice said. 7.    He said to me, ‘I don’t believe you.’ 8.    He says, ‘I am glad to be here this evening.’ 9.    He said to me, ‘What are you doing?’ 10.    ‘Where is the post office?’ asked the stranger. 11.    He said, ‘Will you listen to me?’ 12.    John said to Peter, ‘Go away.’ 13.    She said to me, ‘Please wait here till I return.’ 14.    ‘Call the witness,’ said the judge. 15.    The speaker said, ‘Be quiet and listen to my words.’

1.    John said that he was very busy then. 2.    He said that the horse had been fed. 3.    John said that he knew/knows her name and address. (Note that the tenses may not change if the statement is still relevant or if it is a universal truth.) 4.    She said that German is/was easy to learn. 5.    He said that he was writing letters. 6.    Alice said that it was too late to go out. 7.    He told me that he didn’t believe me. OR He said he didn’t believe me. 8.    He says that he is glad to be here this evening. (When the reporting verb is in the present tense, adverbs of time and place do not normally change in indirect speech.) 9.    He asked me what I was doing. 10.    The stranger asked where the post office is/was. 11.    He asked me if I would listen to him. 12.    John ordered Peter to go away. 13.    She asked me to wait there till she returned. 14.    The judge commanded them to call the first witness. 15.    He urged them to be quiet and listen to them.

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100 Reported Speech Examples: How To Change Direct Speech Into Indirect Speech

Reported speech, also known as indirect speech, is a way of communicating what someone else has said without quoting their exact words. For example, if your friend said, “ I am going to the store ,” in reported speech, you might convey this as, “ My friend said he was going to the store. ” Reported speech is common in both spoken and written language, especially in storytelling, news reporting, and everyday conversations.

Reported speech can be quite challenging for English language learners because in order to change direct speech into reported speech, one must change the perspective and tense of what was said by the original speaker or writer. In this guide, we will explain in detail how to change direct speech into indirect speech and provide lots of examples of reported speech to help you understand. Here are the key aspects of converting direct speech into reported speech.

Reported Speech: Changing Pronouns

Pronouns are usually changed to match the perspective of the person reporting the speech. For example, “I” in direct speech may become “he” or “she” in reported speech, depending on the context. Here are some example sentences:

Reported Speech: Reporting Verbs

Reported speech: tense shifts.

When converting direct speech into reported speech, the verb tense is often shifted back one step in time. This is known as the “backshift” of tenses. It’s essential to adjust the tense to reflect the time elapsed between the original speech and the reporting. Here are some examples to illustrate how different tenses in direct speech are transformed in reported speech:

Reported Speech: Changing Time and Place References

Reported speech: question format.

When converting questions from direct speech into reported speech, the format changes significantly. Unlike statements, questions require rephrasing into a statement format and often involve the use of introductory verbs like ‘asked’ or ‘inquired’. Here are some examples to demonstrate how questions in direct speech are converted into statements in reported speech:

Reported Speech: Omitting Quotation Marks

Reported speech quiz.

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Indirect Speech

Introduction.

Communicating effectively requires us to master a variety of grammatical rules. One such critical element is the appropriate use of ‘Indirect Speech’, also known as reported speech. Indirect speech allows us to convey what another person has said without quoting them directly.

Table of Contents

What is Indirect Speech?

Indirect Speech is a way of expressing the words or utterances of a speaker in a reported manner. In contrast to direct speech, where the original speaker’s words are quoted verbatim, indirect speech is more about reporting the essence or meaning of what the speaker said rather than quoting them exactly.

For example:

Direct Speech: Lisa said, “I am going shopping.”

Indirect Speech: Lisa said that she was going shopping.

Changes in Verb Tenses

Tense shifts.

When you transform sentences from direct to indirect speech, the verb tenses typically shift back a step in time. This phenomenon is often referred to as ‘sequence of tenses’ or ‘backshift’. However, the backshift is not applied if the spoken words still apply at the time of reporting or the words express a universal truth.

Here are the typical conversions:

• Present Simple changes to Past Simple. E.g., “I like pizza” becomes “She said that she liked pizza.”
• Present Continuous changes to Past Continuous. E.g., “I am eating pizza” becomes “She said that she was eating pizza.”
• Will changes to would. E.g., “I will go” becomes “He said that he would go.”
• Past Simple changes to Past Perfect. E.g., “I ate lunch” becomes “She said that she had eaten lunch.”

Exceptions to Tense Shifts

There are exceptions to these rules, such as when the direct speech element is a universal truth or a fact. Consider the below examples:

• John said, “The sun rises in the east” becomes “John said that the sun rises in the east.”
• She said, “Water boils at 100 degrees Celsius” becomes “She said that water boils at 100 degrees Celsius.”

Changes in Pronouns and Time Expressions

Pronoun changes.

When changing from direct to indirect speech, it’s often necessary to modify the pronouns to match the speaker and listener’s point of view. For example:

• “I love you,” he said. (Direct)
• He said he loved me. (Indirect)

Time Expression Changes

Time expressions often undergo necessary modifications when moving from direct to indirect speech. Here are some examples:

• “Today” becomes “That day.”
• “Now” becomes “Then.”
• “Tomorrow” becomes “The next day” or “the following day.”
• “Next week” becomes “The following week.”

Indirect Commands and Requests

We can also convey commands and requests indirectly. For indirect commands, we use “to” + base verb and for indirect requests we use “if” or “whether” + subject + could/would, followed by the base verb.

• Direct: “Close the window!” – Indirect: He told me to close the window.
• Direct: “Can you lend me the book?” – Indirect: She asked if I could lend her the book.

Indirect Questions

When posing indirect questions, we need to ensure that the word order follows the structure of a standard statement, rather than a direct question.

Direct: “Where are you going?” – Indirect: He asked me where I was going.

Mastering indirect speech is essential but can be challenging because of the need to adjust verb tenses, pronouns, and time expressions. However, with practice, it becomes easier, and steadily, you find yourself communicating more effectively and efficiently, especially in formal and written contexts. Keep practicing, and soon converting direct speech to indirect speech will become second nature.

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Reported Speech

Perfect english grammar.

Reported Statements

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:

• Reported speech: She said (that) she liked ice cream.

* doesn't change.

• 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?
• Reported speech: She asked me where I lived.
• Direct speech: Where is Julie?
• Reported speech: She asked me where Julie was.

• Direct speech: Do you like chocolate?
• Reported speech: She asked me if I liked chocolate.

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?
• Reported speech: She asked me to close the window.

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

Reported Orders

• Direct speech: Sit down!
• Reported speech: She told me to sit down.

• Click here for an exercise to practise reported requests and orders.

• 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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Indirect Speech: Formula and Rules

• July 3, 2021

We are talking about a very important and interesting topic. We are talking about direct and indirect speech in English and what is the correct formula of the usage.

Remember to read How to learn English with audiobooks for FREE

This topic can seem complicated at the beginning, but necessary to learn. Having this topic solved, you improve your English to a new level, so let’s start to deal with it.

What are Direct and Indirect speech?

In English, there are two ways how we can tell what another person said. Two ways you can say what someone else has said before.

• Direct Speech
• Indirect (Reported) Speech

Note : Indirect speech in different textbooks can be called differently: Indirect Speech or Reported Speech . But these two names mean the same.

Indirect Speech = Reported Speech

Direct speech in English is a type of speech when we retell someone’s speech as it was. We don’t change anything.

John says: I’m a good boy.

To tell what John said, we will say:

We say: John said, “I’m a good boy.”

Indirect speech differs from direct speech in that we DO NOT tell exactly what another person said. We are NOT repeating what someone else said. Indirect speech is when we tell the MEANING of what someone else said.

We say: John said he was a good boy.

Pay attention to what this sentence looks like. Earlier, when John said this, the sentence looked like this:

I am a good boy.

But after WE retell John’s words, in the indirect speech, this sentence looks like this:

John said he was a good boy.

The Quotes and the comma that stood after the name John, separating the speaker from his direct speech, disappeared from this sentence.

In indirect speech, we do not use the separating comma and quotation marks. Because now it is WE are retelling the meaning of what the other person (John) said.

In direct speech, the speaker most often speaks in the first person. That is, the speaker speaks from his person.

John will not talk about himself: John is a good boy . John will say it on his behalf: I am a good boy.

But when we retell the words of John (indirect speech), we cannot speak on his behalf. We cannot say “I am a good boy” because those are not our words. This is John a good boy.

Therefore, in indirect speech, we change “I” to the third person.

He says: I hate you but I need your help.

I retell: He said that he hated me but he needed my help.

To translate direct speech into indirect speech, we use certain rules that you should know.

Let’s take a look at these rules and formulas in order.

Quotation marks and comma

In direct speech, we use a comma to separate the speaker from what he is saying. Direct speech (what the speaker says) is in quotation marks.

When we translate direct speech into indirect speech, we remove quotes and commas.

Jessica says , “I’m from the future.”

We retell Jessica’s words: She said that she was from the future.

Personal and possessive pronouns

When translating direct speech into indirect speech, we change personal and possessive pronouns to third-person pronouns.

Direct Speech : He says, “ I couldn’t stay” Indirect Speech : He said that he couldn’t stay. Direct Speech : Tom says, “ I am deeply disturbed” Indirect Speech : Tom said that he was deeply disturbed.

Note: If in direct speech the speaker tells his own words, then we do not change personal and possessive pronouns.

Direct Speech: I said, “ I will do that” Indirect Speech: I said that I would do that.

Adverbs in direct speech

When we translate adverbs from direct speech to indirect, adverbs change their form.

You can see how adverbs look in direct speech and how adverbs look in indirect speech in this table:

But we don’t always change adverbs this way. We change adverbs only if, when translating from direct speech into indirect speech adverbs cannot express the same meaning as in direct speech.

Take a look at an example:

Mom says, “ Tomorrow we will go to Uncle John’s.” Mom said that the next day we would go to Uncle John’s.

In these examples, we have replaced the adverb tomorrow with the next day . Because we retell Mom’s words on another day. We cannot say tomorrow anymore.

Now look at another example:

Mom says, “We went to visit Uncle John yesterday .”

Now imagine that we are retelling this the next day. We have to say:

Mom said that we went to visit Uncle John the day before yesterday .

If we said “ yesterday “, it would change the meaning of what we want to tell.

If in direct speech in the main sentence the predicate is in Past Simple, then in indirect speech we use the agreement rules.

We put the conjunction “ that ” in front of indirect speech.

Note: We may not use the conjunction that after verbs such as:

He said he found it on the island. He thought he was better than me. He knew he could call you anytime.

Prepositional object

If in direct speech after the verb to say there is a prepositional object, then in order to translate such a sentence into indirect speech, we change the verb to say to tell . In this case, tell is used without the preposition to .

Incorrect : to tell Correct : tell

This means:

She said to me … changes to She told me that …

Note : Remember that in this case we also change the adverbs of place and time and demonstrative pronouns, if they are in direct speech.

Modal verbs

For modals, we use several important rules.

We change modal verbs as well as main verbs when moving from direct to indirect speech.

But we do not change all modal verbs. We leave some verbs in their original form.

Let’s talk about modals in more detail.

Modal verb must

If in direct speech the verb must means an obligation or command, then in the subordinate clause in indirect speech must does NOT change and looks like must .

The teacher says, “You must behave well in class.” The teacher said that we must behave well in class.

If in direct speech the verb must expresses the need, then in the subordinate clause in indirect speech we change the verb must to had to .

Mom says, “You must visit the doctor.” Mom said that I had to visit the doctor.

The past form of Modal verbs in indirect speech

Can and could..

We change the modal verb can in direct speech to could in indirect speech. Could is the past form of the modal verb can .

She says, “I can swim.” She said that she could swim.

May and might.

We change the modal verb may in direct speech to might in indirect speech. Might is the past form of the modal verb may .

John says, “I may propose to Maria.” John said that he might propose to Maria.

Must and had to.

We change the modal verb must in direct speech to had to in indirect speech (if the verb must expresses the need). Had to is the past analog of the modal verb must .

Modal verbs that do not change in indirect speech

The following verbs move from direct to indirect speech in their original form. They don’t change in any way.

• must (if the verb must means an obligation or command)

He says, “I could do this.” He said he could do that.

Let’s take a closer look at these verbs:

The modal verb would in direct speech remains in the form would in indirect speech too.

Mom says, “I would bake a cake.” Mom said she would bake a cake.

If we use the modal verb could in direct speech, then we do not change this verb in any way in indirect speech. Because could is a past form already (It’s the past form of the modal verb can ).

John says, “I could learn to swim” John said he could learn to swim.

The modal verb might does not change its form when we translate this verb from direct to indirect speech. Because the modal might is the past form of the modal may .

He says, “I might ask the same question again”. He said that he might ask the same question again.

We do not change should when switching to indirect speech. Because should is considered the past form of the modal verb shall .

He says, “We should see Mr. Gannon” He said that we should see Mr. Gannon.

We do not change the modal verb OUGHT TO when translating this verb into indirect speech.

She says, “You ought to be angry with John” She said that I ought to be angry with John

Exceptions to the rules

Let’s talk about the important exceptions to the rules of this lesson.

• We can exclude the word that out of affirmative sentences in indirect speech. Because in indirect speech in affirmative sentences, the meaning of the sentence does not change, regardless of whether we use that or not.

He said ( that ) he thought you seemed depressed. He said ( that ) there was no need. He said ( that ) he had many friends.

• If in direct speech we are talking about a specific event that happened at exactly the specified time and did not happen anymore, then we translate the sentence into indirect speech without the agreement.

He says, “Gagarin went to space in 1961.” He said that Gagarin went to space in 1961.

The event that we are talking about in this example happened at exactly the specified time and did not happen anymore.

• If in direct speech we use verbs such as:

then when translating into indirect speech, we do not change the form of these verbs. These verbs remain in their form.

She says, “We might find some treasure” She said that we might find some treasure.

He says, “I should do it”. He said that he should do it.

• If indirect speech begins with the verb say or tell which is used in the form:
• Present Simple
• Present Perfect
• Future Simple

then we translate such a sentence into indirect speech without changing the tense to the past:

She says, “I cook deliciously.” She says that she cooks deliciously. He says, “I have a new smartphone.” He says that he has a new smartphone. She will say, “I didn’t know it.” He will say (that) he didn’t know it.

• If in direct speech we are talking about a well-known fact or law of nature, then we do not transfer to the past such a fact or the law of nature when translating from direct speech to indirect.

He says, “After winter comes spring.” He said that after winter comes spring. She says, “Lions don’t hunt camels.” She said that lions don’t hunt camels.

• If in direct speech we use tenses:
• Past Continuous
• Past Perfect
• Past Perfect Continuous

then when translating into indirect speech, we do not change the sentence, we do not translate the sentence into the past.

He says, “I had fixed my car.” He said he had fixed his car. He says, “I was skiing .” He said he was skiing . He says, “I had been all alone for a very long time”. He said that he had been all alone for a very long time.

Interrogative (question) sentences in indirect speech

Look at the following rules and nuances to know how to correctly translate interrogative (question) sentences from direct speech to indirect speech:

• When we translate a general question into indirect speech, we put one of the conjunctions between the main sentence and the question:

He asks, “Do you play dominoes?” He asked if I played dominoes. He asked whether I played dominoes.

• If we translate an interrogative sentence from direct speech to indirect speech, then we change the interrogative word order to direct word order.

We remove the auxiliary verb that was used in the interrogative sentence. We put the subject before the predicate as it should be for the direct word order.

He asks, “Where are you going?” He asked where I was going.

• If in an indirect sentence we ask a question using the verb say and if there is no indirect object in the main sentence, then we change the verb say to one of these words:
• want to know

She asks, “Where you are?” She wanted to know where you were.

• When translating an interrogative sentence from direct speech into indirect speech, we change all pronouns, verbs, adverbs of place, adverbs of time.

She asks, “What do these letters mean?” She asked what those letters mean.

Special questions in indirect speech

Special questions (or Wh-questions) are questions that begin with an additional, question word.

In indirect speech, such a question should also begin with a question word.

This question word also serves as conjunction. This word attaches the question part to the main sentence.

In the question part, we use direct word order.

At the same time, we comply with all the rules for the Sequence of tenses.

My dad asks, “What do you plan to do with yourself?” My dad asked what I planned to do with myself.

Imperative sentences in indirect speech

When translating imperative sentences from direct to indirect speech, we must take into account several nuances:

• Orders in indirect speech look like this:

He said, “ Go now!” He said to go then. She says, “ Carry my bag” She asked to carry her bag.

We use the verb to say when we translate an ordinary sentence into indirect speech. But in imperative sentences, we change the verb to say to a verb that expresses an order or request:

She says , “Carry my bag” She asked to carry her bag.

• In direct speech in the imperative mood, we often use:

let’s (let us)

let’s encourage the speaker and the person to do something together.

In indirect speech, we change let’s to to suggest . For example:

She says, “ let’s do that!” She suggested to do that.

• In indirect speech, we put a noun after the verb that expresses an order or request. The noun is the one to whom this request or order is addressed. Then we use the infinitive.

She says, “Replace him, John “ She asked John to replace him.

• We can strengthen the request or order in indirect speech if we add verbs such as:
• to recommend
• to urge etc.

She says , “Read this book” She ordered ( advised, recommend ) me to read that book.

• In order to make a negative imperative sentence in direct speech, we need:

not + infinitive

He says, “Don’t cry.” He said to me not to cry.

• In direct speech, we often do not name the person to whom the order or request is addressed. But when translating an imperative sentence from direct speech to indirect speech, we must indicate the one to whom the order or request is addressed.

For this, we use a noun or a pronoun.

She says, “Speak to him!” She asked me to speak to you.

Present and future tense in indirect speech

Most often, we translate the future and the present into the past.

He says, “I have two brothers” He says that he had two brothers She says, “I do this every time” She says that he did that every day. He says, “I write books” He says that he wrote books. She says, “I am reading” She said that she was reading. He says, “I can swim” He said that he could swim. He says, “I will help you” He said that he would help me.

Past tense in indirect speech

When we translate a sentence written in the past into indirect speech, we can leave it unchanged or we can change the past to the Past Perfect.

He says, “I saw this movie” He said that he saw that movie. He said that he had seen that movie.

What if in direct speech the main verb is already in Past Perfect?

In this case, the verb in Past Perfect remains unchanged. The verb in Past Perfect in direct speech remains in Past Perfect in indirect speech too.

He says, “I had bought I new house” He said that he had bought a new house.

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Direct and Indirect Speech

Table of Contents

What is Speech (Narration):

If we want to describe the speech of some other people with other people in our own words, that speech is called a Reported speech or Narration.

Types of Speech

In the English language, there are certain ways to express the spoken words between two people.

The speech has two main types, Direct speech , and Indirect speech , respectively.

These two ways of narration of spoken words are also called Direct and Indirect speech, also known as Direct and Indirect narrations. 

Direct and indirect speech is majorly used in any conversations, scripts, or any biographies, etc. where one or more than one person converses with each other.

Direct speech:

It is also called straight speech or quoted speech, which is spoken or written directly in the text by the speaker, writer, or the first person, who is going to speak with anyone with him.

The spoken statements of the speaker normally come under the inverted commas notation, and a speaker who speaks these sentences may come like “he said/he said that.”

The speaker’s words or statements are mentioned in a single phrase pattern or direct discussion.

Indirect speech:

An Indirect speech is also called a reported speech, or secondary speech means the speech, which has spoken indirectly.

It is simply an overlook statement that is used to say about the incident that has happened in the past time.

The actual words of the speaker changed into the past tense and the sentence, and hence the reported speech of the direct speech does not come inside the inverted commas.

Reporting speech:

A person who is going to report the speech or a speech that comes in the first part of the direct speech is called a reporting speech.

• He says , “He cooks food”.

Reported speech:

Reported speech is a speech that is always in an inverted comma or quotation marks.

It is a second part of the direct speech sentence.

• He says,  “He cooks food.”

Reporting verb:

The verb, which is used in a reporting speech to report something in a direct speech, is called a reporting verb.

• Zoya  said , “I want to go there.”

Reported verb:

The verb which comes inside the reported speech is called reported verb, respectively.

• Zoya said, “I  want  to go there.”

As we start writing any direct and indirect conversation, we often use reported verbs like  “say, tell, ask, inform, instruct, claim, suggest, enquire, etc.”

These reported verbs, whenever used in direct or indirect speech, change into the past simple form like  said, told, asked, informed, instructed, claimed, suggested, enquired, etc.

But the verbs used in a speech between the inverted commas will remain as it is.

Examples of direct and indirect speech:

• Indirect speech: John said that she was looking so beautiful.
• Indirect : He said that he was not a culprit.
• Indirect : He said that she was working on that project.
• Indirect : The teacher asked if he completed his homework. 
• Indirect : She says that she is an artist.
• Indirect : Sam told me that he was not coming with me.
• Indirect : He says that she is working on that project.

Some basic rules for converting direct speech into indirect speech:

Rule 1 : “no inverted commas.”.

The reported speech does not come into inverted commas or quotation in an indirect speech.

Example: Direct: He said, “I have completed my assignments yesterday.”

    Indirect: He said that he had completed his assignments the previous day.

Rule 2: use of “that” conjunction

Using the conjunction word “that” in-between the reporting speech and reported speech in an indirect speech.

Example: 

• He said, “I have completed my assignment yesterday.”
• He said  that  he had completed his assignment the previous day.

Rule 3: Change of tense

While writing a direct speech into an indirect speech, we have to change the tense of the reported speech because whatever we are writing in indirect speech has already happened in the past timing.

• If the tense of a reporting speech of direct speech is in the present tense or future tense , then the tense of the reported speech in indirect speech will not change. It may be in the present tense, past tense, or future tense, respectively.
• Indirect : He says that he is going to school. (no change in tense)
• Indirect : She says that she  will not come  with me. (no change in tense)
• Indirect : He says that he  wrote  a letter. (no change in tense)

If the tense of the reporting verb of direct speech is in the past tense, then the tense will change according to these criteria.

For the present tense:

Simple present tense will change into simple past tense..

Direct: He said, “They come to meet me.”

Indirect: He said that they came to meet him.

Present continuous tense will change into past continuous tense.

Direct: She said, “They are coming to meet me.”

Indirect: She said that they were coming to meet her.

Present perfect tense will change into past perfect tense.

Direct: He said, “They have come to meet me.”

Indirect: He said that they had come to meet him. 

Present perfect continuous tense will change into past perfect continuous tense.

Direct: She said, “They have been coming to meet me.”

Indirect: She said that they had been coming to meet her. 

For the past tense:

Simple past tense will change into the past perfect tense.

Direct: He said, “They came to meet me.”

Indirect: He said that they had come to meet him.

Past continuous tense will change into past perfect continuous tense.

Direct: She said, “They were coming to meet me.”

Indirect: She said that they had been coming to meet her.

Past perfect tense and past perfect continuous tense will remain the same.

Direct: He said, “They had come to meet me.”

Direct: She said, “They had been coming to meet me.”

For the future tense:

There are no changes in the future tense sentences; only shall/will may change into would, can change into could.

• Direct: She said, “Can you come tomorrow.”

Indirect: She said that could he come on the next day

• Direct: He said, “I will never forgive you.”

Indirect: He said that he would never forgive me.

Rule 4: Changing the pronoun

The pronoun used as an indirect subject speech sometimes needs to be changed accordingly in indirect speech as of the reported verb of the direct speech.

• The pronoun used for representing the first person in reported speech changes based on the subject of the reporting speech in a direct speech.
• The pronoun used for representing the second person in reported speech changes based on the report’s object in a direct speech.
• The pronoun used for representing the third person remains the same in the reported speech.
• Direct: He said, “ I  am going to school.”
• Indirect: He said that  he  is going to school.
• Direct: She says, “ I  will not come with  you .”
• Indirect: She says that  she  will not come with  me .
• Direct: They said, “ we  are eating our tiffin box.”
• Indirect: They said that  they  were eating  their  tiffin box.

Rule 5: Changing the time

The mentioned time (not the timing) in a direct speech sentence will have to change in indirect speech like   now  becomes  then, tomorrow  becomes  the next day, yesterday  becomes  the previous day, today  becomes  that day, later  becomes  soon. 

• Direct: He told, “He is coming from Tokyo  today .”
• Indirect: He told me that he was coming from Tokyo  that day .
• Direct: She asked, “Will the parcel reach by  tomorrow  or not?”
• Indirect: She asked whether the parcel will reach by  the next day  or not.
• Direct: “The teacher has given some assignments  yesterday ”, he reminds me.
• Indirect: He reminds me that the teacher had given some assignments on  the previous day.

Conversion of statements from direct speech into Indirect speech:

Assertive sentences:.

Assertive sentences are simple statements that may be affirmative or negative.

If we are going to convert assertive sentences from direct speech into indirect speech, we have to replace “said” with “told” sometimes.

Here, the subject in direct speech refers to someone in his talk.

• Direct: He said to me, “she is working on this project.”

Indirect: He told me that she was working on that project.

• Direct: She said to me, “I’m going for a long drive.”

Indirect: She told me that she was going for a long drive.

Imperative sentences:

Imperative sentences are statements that deliver a command, order, request, appeal, or advice.

It depends on the speaker, how he delivers the message to the other person.

• Sit properly!
• Stand by my side!
• Come closer!

While converting these types of sentences cum statements from direct speech to indirect speech, we have to check the type of sentence, whether it is a command, order, request, or else.

• Direct: The teacher said to me, “Sit properly!”

Indirect: The teacher ordered me to sit properly.

• Direct: The Boss said to an office boy, “Bring one coffee for me.”

Indirect: The Boss commanded an office boy to bring a coffee for him.

Indirect: The teacher requested me to sit properly.

• Direct: The bartender said to me, “try this drink.”

Indirect: The bartender advised me to try that drink.

Interrogative sentences:

An interrogative sentence is a sentence which interrogates or ask questions.

Each interrogative sentence ends with an interrogative sign or a question mark sign “?”.

• What is your name?
• Can you do me a favor?
• Why are you laughing in the classroom?

While writing interrogative sentences from direct speech into indirect speech,

• the reporting verb “said” in the direct speech is changed into “asked” in the indirect speech because it asks the question to another person.
• If any reporting verb comes first in the reporting speech, then “If” is used despite “that.”
• In a reporting speech, if any wh-type question words are present, then no other words will be used, and the sentence ends with a full stop sign instead of a question mark.
• Indirect: He asked me what was my name.
• Indirect: She asked if he could do her a favor.
• Indirect: The teacher asked him why he was laughing in the classroom.

Exclamatory sentences:

Exclamatory sentences are those sentences that show emotions, feelings and ends with an exclamation mark!

• Congratulations! You have a baby girl.
• I am extremely sorry for your loss!
• Most welcome!

If any interjection comes in an exclamation sentence, then the exclamation sign removes in an indirect speech, and an exclamatory sentence gets converted into an assertive sentence.

The replacement of reporting verb “said” with  exclaimed with (great wonder, sorrow, joy) exclaimed (joyfully, sorrowfully)

Replace with  very  or  very great , if words like  how  or  what  comes at the beginning of the reported speech.

• Indirect: He exclaimed with joy that I had a baby girl.
• Indirect: She exclaimed with sorrow that she felt sorry for my loss.
• Indirect: They exclaimed with joy that most welcome.

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• Transcription

Reported or indirect speech

The first section mostly reiterates material in the initial training section and is here as a reminder of the basics.  You can skip this if you are already aware of the basic issues or have recently worked through the initial training section for this area. If that is the case, skim through what follows, and/or do the mini-test or use this menu to go to the area you need and then move on.  It's up to you.

At the end of each section, you can click on -top- to return to this menu, simply read on, scroll back or bookmark the page for another time.

In what follows, we are going to consider four sorts of utterances which are often reported:

• Statements such as:     It is in the cupboard which are usually reported with that- clauses
• Questions such as:     When did you go? which are usually reported with dependent wh -clauses
• Exclamations such as:     What a lovely view! which are usually reported with wh -clauses
• Commands such as:     Get this done today which are usually reported with to- infinitive clauses

On the left we have the direct speech – the words uttered. On the right we have reported or indirect speech – how the message is passed on.

On the face of it, there's nothing terribly difficult about this idea.  The tense shifts back one (from, e.g., was to had been, from can to could ) .  At the same time, I changes to he , we changes to they and so on. Here's a list of the changes in English.

A small but significant source of error in reporting in British English is that the intrusive got in, for example:     I have got enough money is dropped when the tense is backshifted so we get:     He said he had enough money However, when the structure is used to express either:

• strong obligation as in:      I have got to go now the got may be retained and the reporting becomes:     He said he had got to go then
• the sense of receive , as in:     I have got a letter from her the got may also be retained and the reporting becomes:     She said she had got a letter from her

Here's a definition:

The name given to those aspects of language whose interpretation is relative to the occasion of utterance Fillmore (1966) in Harman (1989)

It's an important phenomenon in this area because the use of deixis neatly explains a lot of the so-called anomalies of indirect speech.  Because meaning is dependent on the identity, point of view, time and location of the speaker / writer we are obliged (or not) to change, e.g., I to he or she, we to they , bring to come, come to go (and go to come ) , this to that, here to there, yesterday to the previous day, now to then, bring to take and so on. We make these changes because of a movement to the deictical centre.  This is usually I, now and here so we make changes to allow for this. There are three types of deixis which affect the way we report what people say:

• Personal deixis: We change pronouns to reflect who is addressing whom so we report, e.g.:     "Will you please come early?" as any of      She asked me to come early     She asked him / her to come early     She asked you to come early     She asked them to come early     She asked [name(s)] to come early depending on the context of who was addressed.
• we often need to change bring to take when reporting in another place.
• we often need to change this to that and these to those (and vice versa )
• Temporal deixis: When reporting times, we need to consider that most people will expect any utterance to be centred on now so we make the appropriate changes as in, e.g., reporting:     "I want to see you this afternoon" as     She asked to see me that afternoon and     "I'm leaving next year" as     She said she was leaving the following year if the reporting takes place much later.

In this regard, the following changes now make more sense:

Once again, we find that context makes meaning .

For more, there is a guide to deixis on this site, linked below, which includes a larger image of the wheel above and explains what it all means.

Of course, not all changes are always appropriate (but using the changes will usually be correct). If we are reporting something virtually simultaneously, then we often don't change the tense or time expressions.  If we are reporting something in the same place, then we don't change the place expressions. Another way of putting this is to refer to the encoding time (when the statement was made) and the decoding time (when the statement was reported).  If the encoding and decoding times are the same, few if any changes need to be made to time markers and tense forms. So we might get:     A: I'm going there now.     B: What did he say?     C: He said he's going there now However, if the encoding and decoding times are sufficiently separated, we do make changes accordingly so the exchange might end as:     He said he was going there then.

If an utterance remains true, we often don't change the tense so we get, e.g.,     I'm from South Africa = He said he's from South Africa     I love the countryside = She said she loves the countryside

Try this matching exercise to make sure you have understood so far.

Did you notice the changes, particularly with time and place expressions but also with the verb come (which changed to go )?

If you have followed so far, this will be familiar:

It's clear that we have examples of direct speech and indirect speech here in sentences 1, 4, 2 and 5 but Sentence 6 is what is called a hybrid form because the first part follows the 'rules' but the second part actually changes only the pronoun, from you to I . If the sentence followed the reported speech 'rules', it should be     He said I was welcome to come and asked if I would like to bring Mary which is another possibility, of course, but sounds quite formal.

Statements or declarative utterances are routinely reported using that- clauses as in, for example:

There are two things to notice even with the simplest type of reporting of direct statements.

• The omission of that . All the examples in the table here include that .  However, it can be and routinely is omitted (something which, incidentally, is not allowed in some languages which have a parallel structure). When it is omitted, it is still, in technical terms a that- clause but referred to as a zero- that- clause, often written as Ø-that -clause . When the clause is short and concise, that is conventionally ellipted so most users of English will prefer:     She said it's OK rather than:     She said that it's OK However, if the utterance is structurally heavy, including multiple adverbials, subordinated and coordinated clauses and other modifiers, it is usually stylistically inappropriate to ellipt that .  For example, if we report:     Mary explained, "Up to now, I had always assumed the guy in the suit was the boss of the enterprise but now I see I was mistaken." we would normally include that in indirect speech and have:     Mary explained that she had up to then she had always assumed that the guy in the suit was the boss of the enterprise but now she saw that she was mistaken.
• Reporting verbs. If we report something like:     "It's the switch on the left," explained Peter. we may choose to structure the report differently and simply have:     Peter explained which switch it was rather than the more tortuous:     Peter explained that it was the switch on the left. There is more on reporting verbs below.

Incidentally, the rule for ordering in direct speech is that you cannot reverse the verb and subject pronoun but you can reverse a noun or noun phrase subject and verb.  We allow, therefore:     "That's the bus," said John and     "That's the bus," John said and     "That's the bus," he said but     "That's the bus,", said he is now hopelessly archaic.

Closed questions are those which require a Yes or No response and they are usually reported with if or whether .  We get, therefore, for example:     Are you going to the cinema? reported as     He asked her if she was going to the cinema There is a bit more to it, however.

Consider what direct speech is being reported in the following.

• I asked whether there were any good recipes in it.
• I asked if there were any good recipes in it.
• She wondered whether to go.
• He asked whether or not they could come.

When you have done that, try reporting these sentences (from the point of view of later and elsewhere). Then click to reveal the comment .

• “Are they English?” she asked
• “Are they English?” he wondered
• “I’m wondering whether to join you.” she said
• "Can I talk to you?" asked Mary

You should have something like:

• "Are there any good recipes in it?" I asked
• "Shall I go?" she wondered / asked herself
• "Can they come?" he enquired
• She asked whether / if they were English
• He wondered whether they were English
• She was wondering whether to join us
• She asked whether / if she could speak to me

In reporting a direct question, you can use if or whether interchangeably but if you are reporting someone's thoughts and doubts, only whether is usually the choice.

The other important thing to make sure that learners get right is the word ordering when reporting a question.  There are three issues to consider:

• The word order in these clauses is the one we would expect for a normal declarative statement.  We have, e.g.:     I asked if he was coming not     *I asked if was he coming
• The do, does, did operator which is used for forming questions in present and past simple tenses is not used in a reported question.  We have, e.g.:     I enquired if she worked in London not     *I enquired if did she work in London
• There is no reversal of subject and object with primary or modal auxiliary verbs.  We have, e.g.:     He wondered if she could manage the project not     *He wondered if could she manage the project

Many languages do not work this way and the transfer from L 1 to L T often produces errors like:     *She asked were they English     *She wondered should she go     *They enquired whether did the train stop at Margate?

Questions phrased using wh- words: who, what, why, when, which, where, how cannot be predicted to have a Yes-No-Maybe answer. Questions formed in this way cannot be reported with if or whether .  The reporting is done by embedding the questions. This means that reporting this type of question requires a different word ordering from that used in reporting yes-no questions (see above) and that is non-intuitive.  Many learners, having struggled to get the word ordering of yes-no questions right, logically transfer the rule concerning not disturbing the natural word ordering to wh-question s with resulting error.  We can get, therefore:     *She asked me where is the station     *They enquired when are we coming     *She asked what did I do for a living etc.

Embedding is often associated with polite questioning so, instead of the direct:     Where is the station? we form polite embedded questions such as     Can you tell me where the station is?

So it is with reported questions.  Thus:

The tense chosen will often conform to the time and place of the reporting using the common-sense rules discussed above although back-shifting tenses where possible is common even when the reporting is virtually simultaneous.

The big issue for learners with this kind of reporting is the ordering of the subject and verb.  Most first languages will lead learners to produce errors such as:     *Can you tell me when is the film beginning?     *Do you know who is the lady there? etc. And this will also carry over to reported questions so we get:     *She asked me where is the zoo     *They enquired what time did the train leave and so on.

Other reporting verbs such as explain, clarify, complain, mention, remember and state will produce similar errors because the structures are parallel to reported questions in English but not parallelled in many other languages.  We may encounter, therefore:     *She explained how did the machine work     *They clarified what did they need     *I remembered where was I going

There is more on the quirky nature of some reporting verbs below.

If the direct question is formed with who, which or what with the verb be as part of the predicate, it is possible to disturb the word order outlined above.  For example, the following can be reported in two ways, like this:

However, the word ordering with the reversal of subject and verb is always correct, so, for teaching purposes, that is the way to go.  Your learners may, however, encounter this disturbance so it's as well to be prepared for it and note that it only occurs in the limited circumstances set out here.

The disturbed word order is, however, always conventional when the question involves be as a simple copula with an adjectival attribute.  So, for example:     Which is best? is reported as:     She asked which was best not as:     *She asked which best was

What are the rules for using that and what in reported speech?  Report the following using that or what if possible and then reveal the commentary .

• "I am coming now."
• "I don't know her name."
• "What's your name?"
• "My name is Mary."
• "I will not go if it rains"

Rule 1: you can't use that in reporting questions or if -clauses. So we can have:     He said (that) he was coming then / is coming now     She said (that) she didn't / doesn't know her name     She said (that) her name is / was Mary but not:     *He asked that is her name     *She said she would not go that if it rained Rule 2: Conditional sentences may be back-shifted but that may not be used in them. At all other times, that can be dropped with no loss of sense, but some loss of formality. On the dropping or not of that with bridge and non-bridge verbs, see below. Rule 3: to report open questions , we have choices.  We can't use that but we can, with a change to an embedded question, use what :     He asked her her name / He asked her what her name was but not, usually:     ?He asked her what was her name

As we saw in part 1 of this guide, tense shifting is common in English and it is rarely wrong to do it.  However:

• If the reporting verb is in the present, we don't shift tenses.  So we get     She often says, "I don't know what to do" changing to     She often says she doesn't know what to do     "There was a nasty accident here last night," John informs me changing to     John tells me there was a nasty accident here / there last night. (Note that last night does not change because the reporting is of a recent utterance.)
• If the validity of what was said still holds.  For example:     Darwin wrote, "There is grandeur in this view of life." changes to      Darwin wrote that there is grandeur in this view of life. not to     Darwin wrote that there was grandeur in this view of life
• Although back-shifting could be used in all the above examples, there are rare times when it actually produces nonsense.  Try reporting     "I chose to study French because it was a beautiful language." Will you accept     He said he had chosen to study French because it had been a beautiful language ?

We saw above that question forms are reported differently from statements.  How would you report these?  Click here to reveal some comments .

• "What awful weather!" she exclaimed.
• "Stop fidgeting!" she said to John.
• "Stop fidgeting," she growled.

Sentence 19 could be rendered as     She exclaimed / said / remarked loudly what awful weather it was . It can't be reported without a change of grammar. Sentence 20 can be reported as     She told John to stop fidgeting but ... Sentence 21 can't be reported this way.  It has to be something like     She growled at John to stop fidgeting Note that we have to insert the object here.

Essentially, there are three types.  Can you categorise this list into three groups?  Click to reveal , as usual.

The simple reporting verbs in the left-hand column often require only the deixis, pronoun and tense shifts covered in this guide.  So we can have, e.g.:

in which the verbs are arranged in relation to the strength of the statement made so, for example:     "I must have the steak," she said could be reported as:     She insisted on having the steak and     "I'd like the steak," she said as     She said she'd like the steak but     "I wonder if I might have the steak," she said as     She enquired whether she could have the steak This has some pedagogical utility, of course, because it gives learners a way of understanding the connotations of the verbs. However, the categories are not unarguable and people will put different verbs in different boxes.  It is a rule of thumb at best.

Some reporting verbs are used to report an embedded or fronted comment clause so, for example, something like:     "She is, as you well know, quite capable." may be reported as:     He insisted that I knew that she was quite capable. Other comment clauses such as in:     "Well, to be honest, I don't have a clue." and     "As you know, I've been living here for years." may be reported using an appropriate reporting verb but maintaining the adverbial as:     He explained that he honestly didn't have a clue. or as:     He reminded me that he had been living there for years.

There is a difference in the way that such clauses are reported depending on the role of the disjunct adverbial.

• Style disjuncts express the speaker / writer's view of what is being expressed and how it should be understood.  So, for example:     "Seriously, I don't think it will arrive in time." expresses how the speaker wishes to be understood and may be reported as:     She seriously doubted whether it would arrive in time.
• Attitude disjuncts indicate how generally the speaker wants to be understood or what limitations apply and they are reported using the same disjuncts usually (so are considerably easier to form).  For example:     "More or less, that's the same conclusion I arrived at." and      "Administrationally, this is quite a simple matter." can be reported simple as:     He said that it was more or less the same conclusion he had arrived at. and     She said it was administrationally quite a simple matter.

Purely for information, there's a PDF of a list of reporting verbs in English list which considers the syntactical restraints concerned with them.  The list also includes some consideration of the functions of reporting verbs and categorises them accordingly. Click to download a list of reporting verbs . Don't try to teach them all at once!

There is also a guide to the kinds of reporting verbs used in academic writing, linked below, which contains a list of over 150 verbs such as state, aver, suggest, discount, dismiss, investigate etc.

The issue here is whether one can omit the word that from a reported statement. The theoretical distinction is between what are called bridge verbs and non-bridge verbs.  Many simple reporting verbs verbs such as say, tell, think, know, write, claim and hear are bridge verbs and it is perfectly in order to omit the word that when they are followed by a clause so we allow both:     He said that he was coming tomorrow     John thinks that it's too expensive     She claims that she lost the money etc. and:     He said he was coming tomorrow     John thinks it's too expensive     She claims she lost the money Many find (that) the sentences without that are more stylistically acceptable.

However, some verbs, exemplified above with verbs like cry, sneer and shout , refer not only to what was said but to how it was said and these are often non-bridge verbs and leaving out that results in clumsiness at best.  For example, many people find:     She shouted she was coming     She whispered the chairman was drunk     He lied he was married     They acknowledged coming late was rude are all clumsy or even wrong and should be expressed with that as:     She shouted that she was coming     She whispered that the chairman was drunk     He lied that he was married     They acknowledged that coming late was rude In general terms, the less common and more loaded reporting verbs require that when followed by a clause . Here are some examples of how non-bridge verbs are used when reporting:

In all those case where we choose to follow the reporting verb with a clause, the insertion of that is almost obligatory. In the last case, not including that results in:     The minister conceded having long periods of unemployment made it difficult to get work in the future which forces the hearer to reconsider who has long periods of unemployment.

In academic writing simple verbs are often avoided for the sake of style or precision and less frequently used so non-bridge verbs are usually preferred.  For example:      Guru confirms that the results are reliable     He acknowledged that the experiment was flawed     The findings indicate that there is a need for ...     She emphasises that findings are provisional all sound clumsy without that .

Clause length is a factor which tends to override the omission of that even with simple reporting verbs so while, for example:     I said, without much optimism based on his previous track record, he would come is correct and the omission of that is acceptable, most native speakers would insert it to signal the subordinate clause as:     I said, without much optimism based on his previous track record, that he would come

The categories are not watertight but once a learner has decided on a speaker's intentions in terms of the function of what was said (rather than the form), it becomes a good deal simpler to select an appropriate reporting verb providing, of course, that the structural constraints which apply to many of them are understood, too. Should you wish it, that list is included in the list of reporting verbs with the colligational characteristics, available here .

Reporting verbs for true questions form a restricted set which is straightforward to teach.  Almost a complete list is:     ask, enquire, want to know, wonder For example:

However, question forms also routinely perform other functions than asking for information and when this happens, other reporting verbs are necessary to reflect the illocutionary force of the utterance. Like this:

As with much in language, we have to look at the function, not the form, to decide on the right way to report the words.

Colligation with reporting verbs is something of a headache for learners of English and there are numerous constraints and possibilities. Reporting verbs can be categorised by what they may be followed by and it is certainly not intuitive to understand, for example, that we can say:     He confirmed that I had passed but we cannot say:     *He congratulated that I passed Here are some of the common issues.  For a list of reporting verbs and their grammatical constraints and possibilities, download the PDF file from the link above or at the end.

There are times when the source of something said or written is obscure, unknown or unimportant and others when we wish to disguise the source and in these cases a passive clause construction with the dummy it comes to the rescue. In academic texts the structure is also used to cite something so well known in a field of enquiry that it needs no sourcing. For example:     It has been suggested that ...     It is often questioned whether ...     It has been asked whether ...     It is generally reckoned that ... and so on. These constructions are not difficult to teach and are communicatively very useful ways of avoiding the need to say who said or wrote something.

Sometimes, we can use the same kind of passive construction without the dummy pronoun when the source of what has been said or written is unknown, absent or unimportant.  For example:     She has been told to ...     I have often be accused of ...     They are said to be ...     The house is reputed to be ... etc.

At other times, we may wish to emphasise the source of a statement and the passive is also used in this way, of course, so we may encounter, for example:     I have been accused by Mary of ...     She has been asked by the boss to ...     The comment has been made by the department head that ... and so on.

Modal auxiliary verbs are frequently defective insofar as some have no tense forms at all, some have past and future forms which use a different verb altogether and some only have tense forms in certain meanings.  It is a complicated area.  (For more, follow some of the guides from the index of modality.)

There is nothing very difficult about the form of reported speech changes (providing a learner is already familiar with the tense forms of English).  However:

• Because of the 'common sense' issues touched on above, you need to make sure that the language is very clearly set in a time-and-place context.
• It is almost impossible to practise the form changes in class by getting students to report each other's utterances because time and place remain static.  You need to spread the practice over time and place to be authentic.
• You need to make sure that learners are aware of the common-sense issues and don't slavishly transform every utterance.
• Languages deal with the issues differently.  Some, for example, reserve a subjunctive tense for reported speech and some hardly make any changes at all.

Teaching the mechanics of indirect speech is not too challenging providing the learners have a grasp of the tense forms and pronoun systems but one does need to address different forms separately or it all becomes a mass of data that bewilders learners. A sensible approach is to apply the analysis as above, focusing on reporting declarative statements, yes-no questions, open, wh- questions, exclamations, orders and so on separately before making any attempt to combine ideas.

Here's an idea for teaching indirect speech and still applying the common-sense rules.

Obviously, this is contrived and artificial to some extent but it is personalised and situates the language temporally and spatially.  It is certainly better than meaningless sentence-transformation exercises.

Because the word order when reporting questions and using a number of the reporting verbs is a common source of error, it is worth practising separately.  Fortunately, the use of back-shifting, even for virtually simultaneous reporting, is also common so there is less need to set up delayed reporting.

• You have to teach the forms before you can launch into this kind of practice and
• The questions may well be mixes of wh- questions and closed questions so the reporting will include formulations such as     He asked you why you became a teacher and     She asked you if / whether you enjoy teaching

You can set up the task to exclude one or other type of question, of course, but that's a lot less natural.

Reporting verbs in English need careful handling and there are a number of issues:

• Grammatical / Colligational issues We saw above that these verbs vary considerably in the constructions they can appear in. When deciding on a set of reporting verbs to teach, therefore, it makes sense to focus on those which are colligates and share structural characteristics or we risk encouraging error rather than helping our learners to avoid it. The simplest way to start is to take common verbs which can be followed by that clauses (i.e., most of them) before getting into other complications. Even at higher levels, it makes sense to select sets of verbs which take the same structural forms in the following clauses.
• Attitudinal issues Above, we divided reporting verbs into three classes: tentative, neutral and assertive. While this is a rather crude categorisation (and the diagram was meant to alert you to the fact that there is a cline rather than a simple three-part division), it has some utility as far as classroom approaches are concerned because it provides a memorable hook on which to hang the verbs.
• Stylistic issues Some reporting verbs are rare and more formal in style or, sometimes, rarer and quite colloquial. We need, therefore, to alert learners to the stylistic differences between, e.g.:     She enquired how he felt and     She asked how he was because learners need these kinds of data to be able to use the words naturally. We also need to remember the distinction between bridge and non-bridge verbs and the effect of dropping or including that .

Click here for the test .

References: Chalker, S, 1987, Current English Grammar , London: Macmillan Harman, I P, 1989, Teaching indirect speech: deixis points the way, English Language Teaching Journal, Volume 44, No 3, pp230-238, Oxford: Oxford University Press

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Reported Speech (Indirect Speech)  

What is reported speech, reporting verbs.

• “She said she was late for the appointment yesterday.” (correct)
• “She said me she was late for the appointment yesterday.” (incorrect)
• “She told me she was late for the appointment yesterday. (correct)
• “She told she was late for the appointment yesterday.” (incorrect)
• “He asked if I could come in early tomorrow .”
• “She explained that she was only joking .”
• “I merely suggested that we should go home early .”

Shifting grammatical tense in indirect speech

Present simple tense.

• “ He told them I live in Germany.”

Past simple tense

• “ She went to the supermarket this morning.”
• “ I told him she went to the supermarket this morning.” or :
• “ I said she had gone to the supermarket this morning.”

Present continuous tense

• “ She says he is writing a letter to their friend.”
• “ She said he is writing a letter to their friend.”
• “ She told us he was writing a letter to their friend.”

Past continuous tense

• “ He told me you had been sleeping when I called.”

Present perfect tense

• “ She said she had been to Paris four times before she met Tom .”

Past perfect tense

• “ He told me the film had ended when he switched on the TV.”

Past perfect continuous tense

• “ He said he had been waiting for over two hours when she finally arrived.”

Future simple tense

• “ He said he would call me tomorrow.”
• Person A: “What did Barry say just now?”
• Person B: “ He said/says he will call me tomorrow.”

Special cases

• “ She told me she could swim .”
• " She said she had to go.”
• “ She told me she must go.”

Modal auxiliary verbs

Reporting the negative, reporting negative speech.

• “ He said he didn’t buy a car.”

Reporting negative commands

• “ He said not to speak .”
• “ He said I wasn’t to speak .”
• “ I told you we were not to speak .”

Giving negative reports

• “ She hadn’t said she was studying for a test.”

Using infinitives to report imperatives, requests, and advice

Imperatives (orders).

1. What is the conventional rule for the verb tense of speech that we report?

2. What does the reporting verb tell require that the verb say does not?

3. Which verbs always remain in the same tense when they are reported?

4. Which verb form is uniquely used when reporting commands, requests, and advice?

5. Which of these is not a reporting verb?

6. Complete the following sentence with the appropriate tense according to conventional grammar rules: Direct speech: “I have seen that movie already.” Reported speech: “He said he ________ that movie already.”

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Former Vice President Dick Cheney says he will vote for Harris

Former Vice President Dick Cheney announced Friday that he will cast his ballot for Vice President Kamala Harris this fall, confirming news that was first made public by his daughter, former Rep. Liz Cheney , earlier in the day.

Both Cheneys are Republicans, and the elder served under President George W. Bush. The younger Cheney, who endorsed Harris earlier this week, is one of former President Donald Trump ’s most prominent conservative critics.

"In our nation’s 248-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump," Dick Cheney said in a statement. "He tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him. He can never be trusted with power again."

“As citizens, we each have a duty to put country above partisanship to defend our Constitution. That is why I will be casting my vote for Vice President Kamala Harris,” he added.

Harris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said that the vice president was “proud” to have Cheney’s support.

“He joins hundreds of Republicans who are backing the Vice President and her patriotic vision of America over former President Trump, because, as Vice President Cheney said, the very future of our republic is at stake in this election,” O’Malley Dillon said in a statement.

In a Truth Social post Friday night, Trump bashed both Cheneys, using the acronym for Republican in Name Only. “Dick Cheney is an irrelevant RINO, along with his daughter, who lost by the largest margin in the History of Congressional Races!" he wrote.

Liz Cheney was ousted in 2021 from her position in House Republican leadership after criticizing Trump. In 2022, she lost her congressional primary race to a Trump-backed challenger.

During the midterm campaign cycle, Dick Cheney taped an advertisement for his daughter’s campaign, in which he called Trump a “coward.”

Liz Cheney revealed who her father would vote for during an interview Friday at the Texas Tribune Festival.

"Dick Cheney will be voting for Kamala Harris," she said.

"If you think about the moment that we’re in, and you think about how serious this moment is, my dad believes and he’s said publicly that there’s never been an individual in our country who is as grave a threat to our democracy as Donald Trump is," Cheney added. "And that’s the moment that we’re facing."

Asked for comment Friday about her remarks, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung replied, “Who the f--- is Liz Cheney?”

Liz Cheney had said when announcing her support for Harris on Wednesday that people do not have "the luxury of writing in candidates’ names, particularly in swing states."

"Because of the danger that Donald Trump poses, not only am I not voting for Donald Trump, but I will be voting for Kamala Harris," she said.

Cheney said on Friday that she has not spoken with Harris this week.

The former Wyoming congresswoman also said during her Friday interview with The Atlantic's Mark Leibovich that she would support Rep. Colin Allred, D-Texas, in his Senate bid. Allred is challenging Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, who has served in the Senate since 2013.

"Here in Texas, you guys do have a tremendous, serious candidate running for the United States Senate, and his name is —" she paused as the audience cheered and Leibovich asked them to let her speak.

"It’s not Ted Cruz," she said.

Cheney went on to praise Allred's credentials, noting the time she served in the House with him.

"We need people who are going to serve in good faith," Cheney said. "We need people who are honorable public servants, and in this race, that is Colin Allred. So I’ll be working on his behalf."

In a statement, Allred called Cheney a "patriot" and said he was "honored to have her support."

"Though we may not agree on everything, we’ve been able to find common ground by putting our country over political parties," Allred said. "Importantly, we both believe in protecting our democracy, our constitution and the foundational promise of our great country. And we both agree that Texans cannot afford six more years of Ted Cruz."

The Allred campaign also noted that he and Cheney cosponsored more than 50 bills together, a nod to their efforts to work across the aisle.

When reached for comment, a Cruz campaign spokesperson called Cheney “the poster child of flip-flopping.”

“We’re definitely super surprised to hear that Liz Cheney, the poster child of flip-flopping, is endorsing Colin Allred,” the spokesperson said. “Two years ago, the voters of Wyoming overwhelmingly rejected her, just like the voters of Texas will overwhelmingly reject Colin Allred this November. But hey, misery loves company.”

The Cheneys are the latest in a steady stream of Republicans who, despite policy differences, say they plan to cast ballots for Harris.

Last week, more than 200 Republicans who have worked for both Bush presidents, Sen. Mitt Romney and the late Sen. John McCain announced that they are backing Harris.

"Of course, we have plenty of honest, ideological disagreements with Vice President Harris and Gov. Walz. That’s to be expected," said the former staffers said in a statement. "The alternative, however, is simply untenable."

Several prominent GOP critics of Trump, including former Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger, appeared onstage at the Democratic National Convention last month to back Harris. In his speech, Kinzinger urged voters to "put country first" and argued that Trump has "suffocated the soul" of the GOP.

Megan Lebowitz is a politics reporter for NBC News.

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English Notes

English notes latest questions, he said to me, “i am writing a letter.” change into indirect speech.

Indirect Speech: He told me that he was writing a letter.

Explanation: When the reporting verb is in the past (said) and the direct speech is in the present continuous tense, then the indirect (reported) speech will change into the past continuous tense.

Present Continuous Tense > Past Continuous Tense.

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