Reported Speech

Reported speech

Direct speech is the exact words someone says. We use quotation marks.

Sara said: “I like swimming.”

The indirect or reported speech tells us what people have said. Meaning is the same, but the words are not the same. We do not use quotation marks.

Sara said that she liked swimming.

Say and tell

We use say in indirect speech. We also us say in reported speech when it is not followed by the person the words were spoken to (not followed by an object). We use tell in reported speech when tell is followed by the person the words were spoken to (followed by an object)

Simon said that he wanted to go home.

Simon told me that he wanted to go home.

We can also say:

Simon said to me that he wanted to go home.

We can report statements, questions, commands, requests and suggestions.

Download the say vs tell exercise here

Click here to do the quiz with say and tell

Reported statements

To report statements, we use a reporting verb followed by a that-clause. In spoken English that is often omitted.

Tense changes

When the reporting verb is in the past tense, the tenses in the sentence which is being reported usually change like this:

Tenses and words that do not change in the reported speech

If the direct verb is in the past perfect, it stays the same in the reported speech.

Modal verbs change like this:

Some modal verbs do not change:

Certain words change like this:

He said: “This is my phone.”

He said that it was his phone.

She said: “I’ll wait for you here.

She said that she would wait for me there.

Time words and expressions change like this:

Note that there are no changes in verb tenses when the reporting verb is in the present:

Jill says: “I can do it by myself.”

Jill says that she can do it by herself.

Also, there are no changes in verb tenses when the sentence expresses something which is always true.

Ryan said: “The moon goes round the Earth.”

Ryan said that the Moon goes around the Earth.

Pronouns and possessive adjectives change according to their meaning:

She said: “We can go to the cinema.”

She said that they could go to the cinema.

Download the reported speech statements exercise here

Reported questions

In reported questions, we use affirmative word order, and the question mark is omitted.

To report a yes/no question, we use if or the whether in the reported question.

She asked: “Are you coming home for dinner?”

She asked him if/whether he was coming home for dinner.

To report a wh-question, we use asked followed by a question word.

He asked: “What time are you coming home?”

He asked me what time I was coming home.

Do the exercise on reported questions

Download Reported Speech questions exercise here

Reported commands, requests and suggestions

To report commands, requests and suggestions, we use a reporting verb followed by a to-infinitive or not to-infinitive.

The teacher told me: “Do your homework.”

The teacher told me to do my homework.

Mother said: “Don’t touch the glass.”

Mother said to me not to touch the glass.

The policeman said: “Can I search the house?”

The policeman asked me to search the house.

Download Reported Speech – commands and requests exercise

Click here to learn 35 reporting verbs in English

Click here to learn about grammatical patterns after reporting verbs

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