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Reported Speech

Reported Speech

We use the reported speech when we want to describe a conversation that took place in the past

Table (1)



 Changes in tenses
Direct speech

Reported speech (indirect speech)
She said, “I study German.”
She said she studied German.
He said, “I am studying grammar now.”
He said he was studying grammar then.
They said, “we saw an interesting film yesterday."
They said they had seen an interesting film the day before.
She said, “I have read two books this month.”
She said she had read two books that month.
He said, “I will / may /can /must participate in the competition.”
He said he would / might / could / had to/ participate in the competition.


Table (2)


 Changes in tenses
Direct speech

Indirect speech
Present simple
Past simple
Present continuous
Past continuous
Simple past
Past perfect (had+v (inf)
Present perfect
Past perfect (had+v (inf)
Modals
can / will + verb (inf)
Could / would + verb (inf)
may +v (inf)
might + v (inf)
must / have to + v (inf)
had to + v (inf)
should +v (inf)
should +v (inf)

Table (3)

                            Other changes
Look at the example in table (1)
Now
Then
Today
The other day
Yesterday
The day before (the previous day)
Last week/month/year…
The week/month/ year before
Tomorrow
The day after (the following day)
Here
There
This
That
These
those


Exercise: Report the following sentences.
  1. Tom said, “I’ve visited Agadir twice.”                   Tom said (that) he………......
  2.  Sara said, “I may visit you tomorrow.”                Sara said she……...................
  3. Amine said, “I play basketball.”                            Amine said……………………
  4. youssef said, “We are doing the exercise now.”     Youssef said…………………...
  5. They said, “We understood the lesson.”                 They said……………………...
  6. Teacher: “you may have a quiz next week.”          Our teacher said………………


 Reported questions, commands, requests, offer, advise, etc
"Are you married?"                                
He asked if I was married
"How are you?"                                       
He asked how I was
"Can you help me, please?"                         
He asked me to help him
"Don't play with the kids"                          
He told me not to play with the kids
"You should revise your lessons"               
He advised me to revise my lessons


NB: when the reporting verb is in the present, there is no change in tenses.

Example:

"Moroccan people are open-minded"    =     Margaret always says that Moroccan people are open-minded


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