Tense Direct Speech Reported Speech
present simple I like ice cream She said (that) she liked ice cream.
present
I am living in London She said (that) she was living in London.
continuous
She said (that) she had bought a car OR She said (that) she bought a
past simple I bought a car
car.
I was walking along the
past continuous She said (that) she had been walking along the street.
street
present perfect I haven't seen Julie She said (that) she hadn't seen Julie.
I had taken English lessons
past perfect* She said (that) she had taken English lessons before.
before
will I'll see you later She said (that) she would see me later.
would* I would help, but..” She said (that) she would help but...
can I can speak perfect English She said (that) she could speak perfect English.
I could swim when I was
could* She said (that) she could swim when she was four.
four
shall I shall come later She said (that) she would come later.
should* I should call my mother She said (that) she should call her mother
might* I might be late She said (that) she might be late
I must study at the She said (that) she must study at the weekend OR She said she had to
must
weekend study at the weekend
* doesn't change.
Reported Questions
So now you have no problem with making reported speech from positive and negative sentences. But how about
questions?
Direct speech: Where do you live?
How can we make the reported speech here?
In fact, it's not so different from reported statements. The tense changes are the same, and we keep the question
word. The very important thing though is that, once we tell the question to someone else, it isn't a question any more.
So we need to change the grammar to a normal positive sentence. A bit confusing? Maybe this example will help:
Direct speech: Where do you live?
Reported speech: She asked me where I lived.
Do you see how I made it? The direct question is in the present simple tense. We make a present simple question with
'do' or 'does' so I need to take that away. Then I need to change the verb to the past simple.
Another example:
Direct speech: Where is Julie?
Reported speech: She asked me where Julie was.
The direct question is the present simple of 'be'. We make the question form of the present simple of be by inverting
(changing the position of)the subject and verb. So, we need to change them back before putting the verb into the past
simple.
Here are some more examples:
Direct Question Reported Question
Where is the Post Office,
She asked me where the Post Office was.
please?
What are you doing? She asked me what I was doing.
Who was that fantastic man? She asked me who that fantastic man had been.
So much for 'wh' questions. But, what if you need to report a 'yes / no' question? We don't have any question words to
help us. Instead, we use 'if':
Direct speech: Do you like chocolate?
Reported speech: She asked me if I liked chocolate.
No problem? Here are a few more examples:
Direct Question Reported Question
Do you love me? He asked me if I loved him.
Have you ever been to
She asked me if I had ever been to Mexico.
Mexico?
Are you living here? She asked me if I was living here.
Time Expressions with Reported Speech
Sometimes when we change direct speech into reported speech we have to change time expressions too. We don't
always have to do this, however. It depends on when we heard the direct speech and when we say the reported speech.
For example:
It's Monday. Julie says "I'm leaving today".
If I tell someone on Monday, I say "Julie said she was leaving today".
If I tell someone on Tuesday, I say "Julie said she was leaving yesterday".
If I tell someone on Wednesday, I say "Julie said she was leaving on Monday".
If I tell someone a month later, I say "Julie said she was leaving that day".
So, there's no easy conversion. You really have to think about when the direct speech was said.
Here's a table of some possible conversions:
now then / at that time
today yesterday / that day / Tuesday / the 27th of June
yesterday the day before yesterday / the day before / Wednesday / the 5th of December
last night the night before, Thursday night
last week the week before / the previous week
tomorro
today / the next day / the following day / Friday
w
