Reporting Statements and Questions
Learn the rules for changing tenses and pronouns in reported speech.
Reporting Statements and Questions
Reported speech (or indirect speech) is used to tell someone what another person said. When we do this, we often have to "backshift" the tenses and change pronouns and time/place words.
Direct Speech: "I am very busy today," she said.
Reported Speech: She said that she was very busy that day.
Common Tense Changes:
- Present Simple -> Past Simple (am -> was)
- Present Continuous -> Past Continuous (are playing -> were playing)
- Past Simple -> Past Perfect (went -> had gone)
- will -> would
- can -> could
Reporting Questions:
Direct: "Where do you live?" he asked me.
Reported: He asked me where I lived. (Note: the word order is like a statement, not a question)
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Reported Speech Quiz
Choose the correct reported speech sentence.
1
Direct: "I will call you tomorrow." He said...
2
Direct: "What are you doing?" She asked what I doing.
3
Direct: "I went to the cinema yesterday." Tom told me...