📌 Contents
🎯 Lesson goal
In this lesson you learn to change Direct Speech into Reported Speech. You will see when to use it, how the tenses change, which reporting verbs to use and how to avoid mistakes! 🚀
🧠 What are direct and reported speech?
1. Direct Speech
In direct speech, you give someone’s exact words. We always use speech marks (“…”).
- She said, “I’m tired.” 😴
- Tom asked, “Where are you going?” 🧳
- “I love pizza,” he said. 🍕
2. Reported Speech
In reported speech, you give the meaning of the message, but not the exact words. There are no speech marks, and the tenses often change.
- She said that she was tired. 😴
- Tom asked where I was going. 🧳
- He said that he loved pizza. 🍕
🔄 Backshift: How the tenses change
When the reporting verb (say, tell, ask…) is in the past, the tense of the speech moves back into the past. This is called backshift.
| Direct tense 🗣️ | Reported tense 📝 | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Present Simple | Past Simple | “I eat pizza.” ➝ He said he ate pizza. |
| Present Continuous | Past Continuous | “I am reading.” ➝ She said she was reading. |
| Past Simple | Past Perfect | “I went to Rome.” ➝ She said she had gone to Rome. |
| Present Perfect | Past Perfect | “I have done it.” ➝ He said he had done it. |
| Will | Would | “I will call you.” ➝ He said he would call me. |
| Can | Could | “I can swim.” ➝ She said she could swim. |
When do we NOT change the tense?
✔️ When the reporting verb is in the present or future: She says she likes tea. 🍵
✔️ When the fact is still always true: “The sun rises in the east.” ➝ She said the sun rises in the east. ☀️
⚠️ Say vs Tell: Common mistakes
| Mistake ❌ | Correct ✅ | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| She said me… | She told me… | “Say” cannot have a person straight after it. Use “tell”. |
| He told that he was tired. | He said that he was tired. | “Tell” must be followed by a person. |
| He asked to me if… | He asked me if… | “Ask” goes straight with the person. |
| He said: “he is here.” | He said he was there. | Remember backshift and the change of place and time! |
❓ Direct → reported questions
If the direct speech is a question, the structure changes and becomes like a statement (no more subject/verb inversion)!
- Yes/No questions: Usa ask + if/whether.
“Do you like it?” ➝ She asked if I liked it. - WH- questions: Use ask + wh-word + subject + verb.
“Where is he?” ➝ She asked where he was.
“What time is it?” ➝ He asked what time it was.
📍 Other changes in reported speech
| Direct word | Reported word |
|---|---|
| today | that day |
| tomorrow | the next day |
| yesterday | the day before |
| now | then |
| here | there |
| this / these | that / those |
Gap Fill Exercises – Reported Speech
Help the jungle animals report their messages! Change the direct sentence into reported speech using the rules of Backshift.