Reported Speech
Whenever you are quoting someone else’s words, you
use two kinds of speeches – Direct or Indirect speech.
In this chapter, we will learn all about Direct and
Indirect speech and how to convert one into another.
Reported speech- How does it work?
Whenever you report a speech there’s a reporting verb
used like “say” or “tell”. For example:
Direct speech: I love to play football.
Reported speech: She said that she loves to play
football. (Note 1 : Assume a gender if not mentioned
already. Note 2: Using “that” is optional. This sentence
could also have been written as “She said she loves to
play football.”)
The tense doesn’t have to be changed in this case of
reported speech. But of the reporting verb is in the past
tense, we do change the tense of the sentence.
Reported speech- Play of the tenses:
Indirect/Reported speech
Direct speech tense
tense
Simple present simple past
present continuous past continuous
simple past past perfect
past continuous past perfect continuous
present perfect tense past perfect tense
past perfect tense past perfect tense
D Re C
irec port hang
T
t ed ed
ense
spee spee tens
ch ch e
Si I Sh Si
mpl like e mpe
e to said past
pres swi she
ent m in liked
the to
swim
in
ocea
the
n
ocea
n
He
I
said
Si live
he
mpl in Si
lived
e Ne mpe
in
pres w past
New
ent Orle
Orle
ans
ans
Sh
e
I said
wen she
P t to had Pa
ast scho gone st
sim ol in to perfe
ple the scho ct
mor ol
ning that
morn
ing
Pr I He Pa
esen was said st
t goin he conti
cont g to was nuou
inuo the goin s
g to
Him the
us alay Him
as alaya
s
Sh
e
said
I
that pa
was
P she st
wal
ast had perfe
king
cont been ct
near
inuo walk conti
the
us ing nuou
beac
near s
h
the
beac
h
Sh
I
e
hav
said
Pr e
she pa
esen cau
had st
t ght
caug perfe
perf a
ht a ct
ect few
few
fish
fishe
es
s
P I He Pa
ast had said st
he
trek
had
ked
trekk
the
ed
Him
the
perf alay perfe
Him
ect as ct
alaya
this
s this
time
time
last
last
year
year
Some word transitions from direct to reported
speech that will come in handy:
Will becomes would
Can becomes could
would stays would
should stays should
must stays must or had to(matter of choice)
shall becomes should
Exception: A present tense in direct speech may not
become a past tense in the reported speech if it’s a fact
or something generic we are talking about in the
sentence. For example-
Direct speech: The sun rises from the East.
Reported speech: She said that the sun rises/rose from
the East.
Reported speech- Handling questions:
What happens when the sentence we are trying to report
was actually a question? That’s something we are going
to deal with in this section. Reported questions- It’s
quite interesting. let’s get into it:
Well the good news is that the tense change you learnt
above stays the same in reported speech for questions.
The only difference is that when you report a question,
you no more report it in the form of a question but in
the form of a statement. For example:
Direct speech: Where do you want to eat?
Reported speech: She asked me where I wanted to eat.
Notice how the question mark is gone from the reported
speech. The reported speech is a statement now. Keep
that in mind as you read further.
Remember the tense change? Let’s apply that to a few
questions now.
Direct speech Reported speech
Are you going She asked me if I was
to my house? going to her house.
Where were you He asked me where I was
going? going.
Where have you She asked me where had i
been? been.
Now these are questions that have wordy answers to
them. What about the questions that has yes/no answers
to them? In these type of questions just add “if” before
asking the question. For example:
Direct speech: Would you like to eat some
cupcakes?
Reported speech: He asked me if i would like to eat
some cupcakes.
Direct speech: Have you ever seen the Van Gogh
paintings?
Reported speech: She asked me if I had ever seen
the Van Gogh paintings.
Direct speech: Are you eating your vegetables?
Reported speech: She asked if I was eating my
vegetables.
Reported speech- Reported requests:
Well not all questions require answers. Some questions
are polite requests. Remember? Could you please try to
remember? And then there are request statements. Let’s
see how do we convert these into reported speech.
Reported request = ask me + to + verb or requested
me + to +verb
Just add this rule to your reported speech and you have
what is called a reported request.
Direct speech Reported speech
Could you please shut She asked me to shut the
the door? door.
She requested me to help
Can you please help me?
her.
Reported speech- Reported orders:
Well, not everyone is going to be polite. Sometimes, we
get orders. Now how will you report them? Unlike the
request, the reporting verb isn’t ask but told or tell.
Also, when in orders, sometimes subjects are omitted
but while reporting we have to revive the subjects. Let’s
see a few examples:
Direct speech: Sit down!
Reported speech: She told me to sit down.
Direct speech: don’t worry!
Reported speech: She told me not to worry.
Reported speech- Time transitions:
Direct
Reported speech
speech
now then / at that time
yesterday / that day / Tuesday / the
today
27th of June
the day before yesterday / the day
yesterday before / Wednesday / the 5th of
December
last night the night before, Thursday night
last week the week before / the previous week
today / the next day / the following
tomorrow
day / Friday
