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Every day you report what other people say: "My teacher told me that...", "She asked if...", "He said he would...". Reported speech — also called indirect speech — is one of the most practical grammar structures in English. It comes up in everyday conversation, IELTS listening and writing tasks, academic essays, business communication, and storytelling. This complete guide walks you through every aspect of reported speech: the tense backshift rules, pronoun and time expression changes, reporting verbs, questions, commands, and the exceptions to the backshift rule.
1. What is Reported Speech?
When we report speech, we tell someone else what another person said. There are two ways to do this in English:
- Direct speech — we quote the exact words, using inverted commas (quotation marks):
She said, "I am tired." - Reported (indirect) speech — we report the meaning in our own words, adapting the tense, pronouns, and time expressions:
She said (that) she was tired.
Why does the tense shift? Because when we report speech later, there is a distance in time. The original statement was in the present — but from our reporting position, that is now in the past. To show this shift, English moves the verb one step back into the past. This process is called tense backshift.
2. Tense Backshift Table
The backshift follows a consistent one-step-back-into-the-past pattern for almost all tenses. Learn this table and you will have the backbone of reported speech:
| Direct speech tense | Reported speech tense | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Present simple | Past simple | "I work here." → He said he worked there. |
| Present continuous | Past continuous | "She is sleeping." → He said she was sleeping. |
| Present perfect | Past perfect | "I have finished." → She said she had finished. |
| Past simple | Past perfect | "We went there." → They said they had gone there. |
| Past continuous | Past perfect continuous | "I was reading." → She said she had been reading. |
| will | would | "I will call you." → He said he would call me. |
| can | could | "I can help." → She said she could help. |
| may | might | "It may rain." → He said it might rain. |
| must (obligation) | had to | "You must leave." → She said I had to leave. |
| shall | would | "I shall return." → He said he would return. |
Some modals do not change because they are already past or have no simpler past form:
- could, would, should, might, ought to → stay the same
- must (deduction): "It must be cold." → He said it must be cold. (deduction, no change)
3. Pronoun Changes
Pronouns in reported speech change to reflect the perspective of the person doing the reporting, not the original speaker. This requires careful thought about who is speaking and who is being spoken to:
| Direct speech pronoun | Reported speech pronoun | Example |
|---|---|---|
| I | he / she | "I am ready." → She said she was ready. |
| we | they | "We have arrived." → They said they had arrived. |
| you (singular) | I / he / she (depends on context) | "You look tired." → She told me I looked tired. |
| you (plural) | we / they | "You are all invited." → He said we were all invited. |
| my | his / her | "My car is new." → He said his car was new. |
| our | their | "Our team won." → They said their team had won. |
| your | my / his / her | "I love your cooking." → He said he loved her cooking. |
✗ She said, "I will call you." → She said she will call you. (wrong tense and wrong pronoun)
✓ She said she would call me. (will → would; you → me)
4. Time Expression Changes
Just as tenses shift back in time, time expressions must also change to reflect the fact that we are reporting from a later point in time:
| Direct speech | Reported speech |
|---|---|
| now | then / at that moment |
| today | that day |
| yesterday | the day before / the previous day |
| tomorrow | the next day / the following day |
| last week | the week before / the previous week |
| next week | the following week |
| last year | the year before / the previous year |
| next year | the following year |
| here | there |
| this (month/year) | that (month/year) |
| these | those |
| ago | before / previously |
Direct: "I will call you tomorrow," he said.
Reported: He said he would call me the next day.
Direct: "We finished the project yesterday," she said.
Reported: She said they had finished the project the day before.
5. Reporting Verbs
The verb say and tell are the most common, but English has a rich repertoire of reporting verbs that encode the type of speech act. Choosing the right reporting verb makes your writing more precise and varied.
Say vs Tell
Say does not take a personal object (or takes "to + person"):
She said (that) she was coming. / She said to me that she was coming.
Tell always requires a personal object:
She told me (that) she was coming.
✗ She told that she was tired. (no object after tell)
✓ She told me that she was tired.
✗ He said me the answer. (say cannot take personal object directly)
✓ He told me the answer.
Reporting Verbs with Patterns
| Pattern | Verbs | Example |
|---|---|---|
| verb + (that) + clause | say, tell, explain, insist, announce, confirm, complain, admit, deny, suggest, claim | She explained that the deadline had changed. |
| verb + (object) + infinitive | tell, ask, advise, warn, order, remind, invite, encourage, persuade, allow | He told me to wait outside. |
| verb + infinitive | promise, offer, agree, refuse, threaten, decide | She promised to help me. |
| verb + gerund | admit, deny, suggest, recommend, apologise for, insist on | He denied stealing the documents. |
6. Reported Questions
Reported questions are more complex than reported statements because the word order changes from question word order back to normal statement word order. Also, we do not use question marks, and we do not use do/does/did.
Wh-Questions (what, where, when, why, who, how)
Direct: "Where do you live?" she asked.
Reported: She asked where I lived. (normal order; no "do")
Direct: "What time did the meeting start?" he asked.
Reported: He asked what time the meeting had started.
Direct: "Why are you crying?" she asked.
Reported: She asked why I was crying.
Yes/No Questions (whether / if)
When the original question has no question word, use whether or if to introduce the reported question:
Direct: "Are you coming to the party?" she asked.
Reported: She asked whether/if I was coming to the party.
Direct: "Have you eaten?" he asked.
Reported: He asked whether/if I had eaten.
7. Reported Commands and Requests
Commands and requests do not use tense backshift. Instead, they are reported using tell/ask + object + (not) to + infinitive:
Direct command: "Close the door." → She told me to close the door.
Direct negative command: "Don't be late." → He told me not to be late.
Direct request: "Please help me with this." → She asked me to help her with it.
Direct request (negative): "Please don't shout." → He asked me not to shout.
Other verbs used for commands and requests: order, warn, advise, beg, instruct, urge, remind, encourage.
The doctor advised me not to eat too much sugar. ("You shouldn't eat too much sugar.")
She warned him not to touch the wire. ("Don't touch the wire!")
He urged us to vote in the election. ("Please vote in the election.")
8. When NOT to Backshift
Tense backshift is not always required. There are two main exceptions:
General Truths and Permanent Facts
If the original statement is a permanent fact or scientific truth, it is acceptable (and often preferable) to keep the present tense:
"The Earth orbits the Sun," the teacher said.
The teacher said (that) the Earth orbits the Sun. (present — fact unchanged)
The teacher said (that) the Earth orbited the Sun. (past — also acceptable)
Reporting Immediately After
When you report speech very soon after it was said, backshift is optional because the statement is still current:
[Five seconds ago, on the phone]
"She says she is running late." (no backshift needed — still true right now)
9. Common Reported Speech Mistakes
| Mistake | Wrong | Correct |
|---|---|---|
| No tense backshift | He said he is tired. | He said he was tired. |
| Wrong pronoun | She said "I love you" → She said she loves you. | She said she loved him. (depends on context) |
| No time expression change | He said he would call tomorrow. | He said he would call the next day. |
| Question word order in reported question | She asked where did I live. | She asked where I lived. |
| Using "say" with personal object | He said me the news. | He told me the news. |
| Using "tell" without personal object | She told that she was busy. | She said (that) she was busy. |
10. Practice: Convert These Sentences
Test yourself by converting these direct speech sentences to reported speech. The answers are below each item.
Direct: "I have never been to Japan," Maria said.
Reported: Maria said (that) she had never been to Japan.
Direct: "We will finish the project tomorrow," the team announced.
Reported: The team announced (that) they would finish the project the next day.
Direct: "Why are you so late?" the manager asked.
Reported: The manager asked why I/he/she was so late.
Direct: "Don't open the window," she told us.
Reported: She told us not to open the window.
Direct: "Can you help me with this?" he asked.
Reported: He asked if/whether I could help him with that.
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