Reported Speech
Direct speech is the exact words spoken. For example:
"I love Chris," said Susan.
Reported (or indirect speech) is when we say what was said before.
You said that you loved Chris.
There are four things you need to remember to change.
- The tense. If the events are now in the past, you need to change the verbs to the past forms.
- The pronouns. Words like 'I' and 'his' and 'they' will all change, because the people speaking have changed.
- Some time expressions. If the time has changed, words like 'yesterday' are meaningless. Instead, we say
the day/week before or the previous day/week
the following day/week or the next day/week - If the place has changed, "here" should change to "there".
| present simple | changes to | past simple |
| present continuous | past continuous | |
| present perfect | past perfect | |
| will | would | |
| shall | should | |
| must | had to | |
| can | could | |
| is going to | was going to |
Reported Speech Practice