Grammar Tips: Reported Speech or Indirect Speech

When we report someone’s words we can do it in two ways. We can use direct speech with quotation marks (“I work in a bank”), or we can use reported speech (He said he worked in a bank.)

In reported speech the tenses, word-order and pronouns may be different from those in the original sentence.

Present simple and present continuous tenses

Direct speech: “I travel a lot in my job” Reported speech: He said that he travelled a lot in his job. 

The present simple tense (I travel) usually changes to the past simple (he travelled) in reported speech. 

Direct speech: “Be quiet. The baby’s sleeping.” Reported speech: She told me to be quiet because the baby was sleeping. 

The present continuous usually changes to the past continuous.

Example: 

“I work in Italy” Reported speech: He told me that he works in Italy. 

It isn’t always necessary to change the tense. If something is still true now – he still works in Italy – we can use the present simple in the reported sentence.

Past simple and past continuous tenses 

Direct speech: “We lived in China for 5 years.” Reported speech: She told me they had lived in China for 5 years. 

The past simple tense (we lived) usually changes to the past perfect (they had lived) in reported speech. 

Direct speech: “I was walking down the road when I saw the accident.” Reported speech: He told me he’d been walking down the road when he’d seen the accident. 

The past continuous usually changes to the past perfect continuous.

Perfect tenses 

Direct speech: “They’ve always been very kind to me”. Reported speech: She said they’d always been very kind to her. 

The present perfect tense (have always been) usually changes to the past perfect tense (had always been). 

Direct speech: “They had already eaten when I arrived” Reported speech: He said they’d already eaten when he’d arrived. 

The past perfect tense does not change in reported speech.