Reported speech: How to report statements in English

English lessons: rules, use, and practice

Reported speech in English: reporting statements

In English grammar, reported speech is how we represent the speech of other people or what we say or said. There are two kinds of reported speech: direct and indirect.

The speech we report basically includes two clauses: the reporting clause and the reported clause. The reporting clause includes a verb as: tell, ask, reply, say, state, wonder… etc. These verbs are usually in the past tense.

When the introductory verb is in the present (says, say, thinks, believe, believes …), NO CHANGES are introduced into the indirect statement in terms of TENSE.

Examples:

“Education played an important role in my success,” he says.
He says that education played an important role in his success.

When the introductory verb is in the past (said, believed, told, stated…), CHANGES are introduced into the indirect statement in terms of TENSE.

Changes of tense
Simple present	changes to Simple past
Simple past	changes to Past perfect
Past perfect	changes to Past perfect
Present perfect	changes to Past perfect
Present continuous	changes to Past continuous
Past continuous	changes to Past perfect continuous
Present perfect continuous	changes to Past perfect continuous

Changes in modals
Must	Had to
Have to/ has to	Had to
Should	Should
Will	Would
Would	doesn’t change. It stays Would
May	Might
Could	Could
Can	Could
Shall	Should
Can’t	Couldn’t
Shouldn’t	Shouldn’t
Won’t	Wouldn’t
Am/is/are going to	Was/were going to
May not	Mightn’t

Changes in words
Tomorrow	The following day
Yesterday	The day before
Today	That day
Tonight	That night
Next year	The following year
Last year	The year before/ the previous year
Tomorrow morning	The following morning
Now	Then
Ago	Before earlier
This	That
These	Those
Here	There

Changes in pronouns
I	He/she
My	His/her
We	They
Our	Their
You	I/we
Me	Him/her

Reporting statements in the passive voice

Statements are declarative sentences that have at least a subject, verb, and a complement. In reported speech, we don’t change the form of the statements. We only change the tense, the expressions of place and time, and pronouns.

Simple Present	“We love our city very much,” the citizens stated.
	The citizens stated that they loved their city very much.
Past simple	“she was very sick” my mother said
	My mother said she had been very sick
Future Simple	“I will travel to London next week” she told me
	She told me she would travel to London the following week
Present Perfect	“she has prepared for the exam,” she said
	She said she had prepared for the exam
Past perfect	“I had gone to school yesterday,” he told me
	He told me he had to school the day before
Present Conti.	“I’m reading my books right now,” she said
	She said she was reading her books then
Past Conti.	“I was watching TV yesterday,” she told me
	She told me she had been watching TV the previous day

Modals
Must	“I must go now,” I told her
	I told her that I had to go then
Should	“You should visit a doctor,” she said
	She said that she should visit a doctor
Can	“I can lift the table,” she said
	She said she could lift the table
May	“I may not come tomorrow,” he told us
	He told us he might not come the following day
Have to	“We have to go now,” they told me
	They told me they have to go then
Would	“I would come if I knew about the party,” she said
	She said I would come if I had known about the party