direct
indirect
reported clause
statement
-clause
question
clause clause
clause
command
-infinitive clause
Indirect speech: reporting statements
Indirect reports of statements consist of a reporting clause and a that -clause. We often omit that , especially in informal situations:
The pilot commented that the weather had been extremely bad as the plane came in to land. (The pilot’s words were: ‘The weather was extremely bad as the plane came in to land.’ )
I told my wife I didn’t want a party on my 50th birthday. ( that -clause without that ) (or I told my wife that I didn’t want a party on my 50th birthday .)
Reporting yes-no questions and alternative questions.
Indirect reports of yes-no questions and questions with or consist of a reporting clause and a reported clause introduced by if or whether . If is more common than whether . The reported clause is in statement form (subject + verb), not question form:
She asked if [S] [V] I was Scottish. (original yes-no question: ‘Are you Scottish?’ )
The waiter asked whether [S] we [V] wanted a table near the window. (original yes-no question: ‘Do you want a table near the window? )
He asked me if [S] [V] I had come by train or by bus. (original alternative question: ‘Did you come by train or by bus?’ )
Questions: yes-no questions ( Are you feeling cold? )
Indirect reports of wh -questions consist of a reporting clause, and a reported clause beginning with a wh -word ( who, what, when, where, why, how ). We don’t use a question mark:
He asked me what I wanted.
Not: He asked me what I wanted?
The reported clause is in statement form (subject + verb), not question form:
She wanted to know who [S] we [V] had invited to the party.
Not: … who had we invited …
In indirect questions with who, whom and what , the wh- word may be the subject or the object of the reported clause:
I asked them who came to meet them at the airport. ( who is the subject of came ; original question: ‘Who came to meet you at the airport?’ )
He wondered what the repairs would cost. ( what is the object of cost ; original question: ‘What will the repairs cost?’ )
She asked us what [S] we [V] were doing . (original question: ‘What are you doing?’ )
Not: She asked us what were we doing?
We also use statement word order (subject + verb) with when , where, why and how :
I asked her when [S] it [V] had happened (original question: ‘When did it happen?’ ).
Not: I asked her when had it happened?
I asked her where [S] the bus station [V] was . (original question: ‘Where is the bus station?’ )
Not: I asked her where was the bus station?
The teacher asked them how [S] they [V] wanted to do the activity . (original question: ‘How do you want to do the activity?’ )
Not: The teacher asked them how did they want to do the activity?
Questions: wh- questions
Indirect reports of commands consist of a reporting clause, and a reported clause beginning with a to -infinitive:
The General ordered the troops to advance . (original command: ‘Advance!’ )
The chairperson told him to sit down and to stop interrupting . (original command: ‘Sit down and stop interrupting!’ )
We also use a to -infinitive clause in indirect reports with other verbs that mean wanting or getting people to do something, for example, advise, encourage, warn :
They advised me to wait till the following day. (original statement: ‘You should wait till the following day.’ )
The guard warned us not to enter the area. (original statement: ‘You must not enter the area.’ )
Verbs followed by a to -infinitive
We can use the reporting verb in the present simple in indirect speech if the original words are still true or relevant at the time of reporting, or if the report is of something someone often says or repeats:
Sheila says they’re closing the motorway tomorrow for repairs.
Henry tells me he’s thinking of getting married next year.
Rupert says dogs shouldn’t be allowed on the beach. (Rupert probably often repeats this statement.)
We often use the present simple in newspaper headlines. It makes the reported speech more dramatic:
JUDGE TELLS REPORTER TO LEAVE COURTROOM
PRIME MINISTER SAYS FAMILIES ARE TOP PRIORITY IN TAX REFORM
Present simple ( I work )
Reported speech
Reported speech: direct speech
In indirect speech, we can use the past continuous form of the reporting verb (usually say or tell ). This happens mostly in conversation, when the speaker wants to focus on the content of the report, usually because it is interesting news or important information, or because it is a new topic in the conversation:
Rory was telling me the big cinema in James Street is going to close down. Is that true?
Alex was saying that book sales have gone up a lot this year thanks to the Internet.
‘Backshift’ refers to the changes we make to the original verbs in indirect speech because time has passed between the moment of speaking and the time of the report.
direct speech | indirect speech |
not very happy at work.’ | not very happy at work. |
going home.’ | going home. |
be late.’ | be late. |
been working,’ she said. | . |
to make her so angry?’ he asked. | to make her so angry. |
In these examples, the present ( am ) has become the past ( was ), the future ( will ) has become the future-in-the-past ( would ) and the past ( happened ) has become the past perfect ( had happened ). The tenses have ‘shifted’ or ‘moved back’ in time.
direct | indirect | |
present simple | → | past simple |
present continuous | → | past continuous |
present perfect simple | → | past perfect simple |
present perfect continuous | → | past perfect continuous |
past simple | → | past perfect simple |
past continuous | → | past perfect continuous |
future (will) | → | future-in-the-past (would) |
past perfect | ↔ | past perfect (no change) |
The past perfect does not shift back; it stays the same:
Direct speech | Indirect speech |
| already left. |
Some, but not all, modal verbs ‘shift back’ in time and change in indirect speech.
direct speech | indirect speech | change | |
| be there,’ he promised. | be there. | becomes |
| need more money.’ I open it?’ she asked. | need more money. open it. | usually becomes in reported questions, becomes |
| see you at 2.30,’ he added. | see me at 2.30. | becomes |
| be back later,’ she said. wait in the hallway,’ he said. | be back later. wait in the hallway. | (possibility) becomes (permission) becomes |
| pay by 30th April.’ be awful to live in such a noisy place,’ she said. | pay by 30th April. be awful to live in such a noisy place. | (obligation) usually becomes (speculation) does not change |
| sell it for about 2,000 euros,’ he said. | sell it for about 2,000 euros. | no change |
| go there immediately,’ she said. | go there immediately. | no change |
| buy it if I had the money,’ he said. | buy it if he had the money. | no change |
| snow tonight,’ he warned. | snow that night. | no change |
| come till six o’clock,’ he said. | come till six o’clock. | no change |
We can use a perfect form with have + - ed form after modal verbs, especially where the report looks back to a hypothetical event in the past:
He said the noise might have been the postman delivering letters. (original statement: ‘The noise might be the postman delivering letters.’ )
He said he would have helped us if we’d needed a volunteer. (original statement: ‘I’ll help you if you need a volunteer’ or ‘I’d help you if you needed a volunteer.’ )
Used to and ought to do not change in indirect speech:
She said she used to live in Oxford. (original statement: ‘I used to live in Oxford.’ )
The guard warned us that we ought to leave immediately. (original statement: ‘You ought to leave immediately.’ )
We don’t need to change the tense in indirect speech if what a person said is still true or relevant or has not happened yet. This often happens when someone talks about the future, or when someone uses the present simple, present continuous or present perfect in their original words:
He told me his brother works for an Italian company. (It is still true that his brother works for an Italian company.)
She said she ’s getting married next year. (For the speakers, the time at the moment of speaking is ‘this year’.)
He said he ’s finished painting the door. (He probably said it just a short time ago.)
She promised she ’ll help us. (The promise applies to the future.)
Changes to personal pronouns in indirect reports depend on whether the person reporting the speech and the person(s) who said the original words are the same or different.
direct | indirect | |
don’t want to shock people,’ Tom said. | said he didn’t want to shock people. | different speakers ( changes to ) |
’ll look after Toby,’ I said. | said I would look after Toby. | same speaker (no change) |
need to be here at nine o’clock,’ George told Beatrice. | told Beatrice she needed to be there at nine o’clock. | different speakers ( changes to ) |
hope you will join us tonight,’ I said to James. | told James I hoped he would join us that night. | same speaker (no change to ; changes to ) |
We often change demonstratives ( this, that ) and adverbs of time and place ( now, here, today , etc.) because indirect speech happens at a later time than the original speech, and perhaps in a different place.
direct speech | indirect speech |
.’ | the next/following day. |
this moment in time.’ | . |
.” | . |
,’ the boy protested. | . |
direct | indirect | |
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The word order in indirect reports of wh- questions is the same as statement word order (subject + verb), not question word order:
She always asks me where [S] [V] I am going .
Not: She always asks me where am I going .
We don’t use a question mark when reporting wh- questions:
I asked him what he was doing.
Not: I asked him what he was doing?
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Fakes and forgeries (Things that are not what they seem to be)
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StoryLearning
Learn A Language Through Stories
There are times when someone tells you something and you’ll have to report what they said to someone else.
How can you do this in English?
You’ll need to know how to use what's called reported speech in English and this is what you’ll learn in this blog post.
Reported speech, also known as indirect speech, is a way of retelling what someone else has said without repeating their exact words.
For example, let’s say you have a friend called Jon and one called Mary. Mary has organised a house party and has invited you and Jon.
Jon, however, is not feeling well. He says to you, “Sorry but I cannot come to the party. I spent all day working outside under the rain and I feel ill today.”
A few days after the party, you meet Sarah. She’s another one of your friends and she was at the party too, but she arrived late – a moment before you left. You only had time to say hello to each other.
She asks you, “I saw you at the party but I didn’t see Jon. Where was he?”
When Sarah asks you, “Where was Jon?” you can say,
“Jon said, ‘Sorry but I cannot come to the party. I spent all day working outside under the rain and I feel ill today’.”
However, it would be more natural to use indirect speech in this case. So you would say, “Jon said he couldn’t come to the party. He had spent all day working outside under the rain and he felt ill that day .”
Did you notice how the sentence changes in reported speech?
Here’s what happened:
Let’s take a closer look at how we form reported speech.
To form reported speech, you might have to make a few changes to the original sentence that was spoken (or written).
You may have to change pronouns, verb tenses, place and time expressions and, in the case of questions, the word order.
There are certain patterns to learn for reporting promises, agreements, orders, offers, requests, advice and suggestions.
Let’s have a look at all these cases one by one.
In general, when we use reported speech, the present tenses become past tenses.
We do this because we are often reporting someone else’s words at a different time (Jon’s words were spoken 3 days before you reported them to Sarah).
Here’s an example:
Jenny (on Saturday evening) says, “I don't like this place. I want to go home now.”(present tenses)
Matt (on Sunday morning) talks to James and says, “Jenny said that she didn't like the place, and she wanted to go home. (past tenses)
So this is how different verb tenses change:
DIRECT: I need money.
INDIRECT: She said she needed money.
DIRECT: My French is improving.
INDIRECT: He said his French was improving.
DIRECT: This has been an amazing holiday.
INDIRECT: She told me that it had been an amazing holiday.
What if there is a past simple form of the verb in direct speech? Well, in this case, it can stay the same in reported speech or you can change it to past perfect .
DIRECT: I didn’t go to work.
INDIRECT: Mary said that she didn’t go to work / Mary said that she hadn’t gone to work
DIRECT: I arrived late because I had missed the bus.
INDIRECT: He said he arrived (or had arrived) late because he had missed the bus.
Modal verbs like “can,” “may,” and “will” also change in reported speech.
DIRECT: The exam will be difficult.
INDIRECT: They said that the exam would be difficult.
DIRECT: I can’t be there.
INDIRECT: He told me he couldn’t be there.
DIRECT: We may go there another time.
INDIRECT: They said they might go there another time.
However, past modal verbs don’t change (would, must, could, should, etc.) don’t change in reported speech.
DIRECT: It would be nice if we could go to Paris.
INDIRECT: He said it would be nice if we could go to Paris.
Here are some other examples:
“I am going to the store,” said John. | John said that he was going to the store. |
“I love pizza,” said Jane. | Jane said that she loved pizza. |
“I will finish the project today,” said Mary. | Mary said that she would finish the project that day. |
“I can't come to the party,” said Tom. | Tom said that he couldn't come to the party. |
“I have a headache,” said Sarah. | Sarah said that she had a headache. |
“I saw a movie last night,” said Peter. | Peter said that he had seen a movie the previous night. |
“I want to learn Spanish,” said Emily. | Emily said that she wanted to learn Spanish. |
“I have been working on this project for a week,” said Sam. | Sam said that he had been working on the project for a week. |
“I don't like this food,” said Mark. | Mark said that he didn't like that food. |
“I am not feeling well,” said Alice. | Alice said that she was not feeling well. |
So, in summary,
You make these verb tense shifts when you report the original words at a different time from when they were spoken. However, it is often also possible to keep the original speaker’s tenses when the situation is still the same.
For example,
1. DIRECT: I am feeling sick.
INDIRECT: She said she is feeling sick.
2. DIRECT: We have to leave now.
INDIRECT: They said they have to leave now.
3. DIRECT: I will call you later.
INDIRECT: He said he will call me later.
4. DIRECT: She is not coming to the party.
INDIRECT: He said she is not coming to the party.
5. DIRECT: They are working on a new project.
INDIRECT: She said they are working on a new project.
What about conditional sentences? How do they change in reported speech?
Sentences with “if” and “would” are usually unchanged.
DIRECT: It would be best if we went there early.
INDIRECT: He said it would be best if they went there early.
But conditional sentences used to describe unreal situations (e.g. second conditional or third conditional sentences) can change like this:
DIRECT: If I had more money I would buy a new car.
INDIRECT: She said if she had had more money, she would have bought a new car OR She said if she had more money, she would buy a new car.
In reported speech, because you’re reporting someone else’s words, there’s a change of speaker so this may mean a change of pronoun.
An example:
Jenny says, “I don't like this place. I want to go home now.”
Matt says, “Jenny said that she didn't like the place, and she wanted to go home.”
In this example, Jenny says “I” to refer to herself but Matt, talking about what Jenny said, uses “she”.
So the sentence in reported speech becomes:
Some other examples:
1 . DIRECT: I have been studying for hours.
INDIRECT: He said he had been studying for hours.
2. DIRECT: I don’t like that movie.
INDIRECT: She said she didn’t like that movie.
3. DIRECT: He doesn't like coffee.
INDIRECT: She said he doesn't like coffee.
4. DIRECT: We have a new car.
INDIRECT: They told me they had a new car.
5. DIRECT: We are going on vacation next week.
INDIRECT: They said they are going on vacation next week.
When you’re reporting someone’s words, there is often a change of place and time. This may mean that you will need to change or remove words that are used to refer to places and time like “here,” “this,” “now,” “today,” “next,” “last,” “yesterday,” “tomorrow,” and so on.
Check the differences in the following sentences:
DIRECT: I'll be back next month.
INDIRECT: She said she would be back the next month , but I never saw her again.
DIRECT: Emma got her degree last Tuesday.
INDIRECT: He said Emma had got her degree the Tuesday before.
DIRECT: I had an argument with my mother-in-law yesterday .
INDIRECT: He said he’d had an argument with his mother-in-law the day before .
DIRECT: We're going to have an amazing party tomorrow.
INDIRECT: They said they were going to have an amazing party the next day.
DIRECT: Meet me here at 10 am.
INDIRECT: He told me to meet him there at 10 am.
DIRECT: This restaurant is really good.
INDIRECT: She said that the restaurant was really good.
DIRECT: I'm going to the gym now.
INDIRECT: He said he was going to the gym at that time.
DIRECT: Today is my birthday.
INDIRECT: She told me that it was her birthday that day .
DIRECT: I'm leaving for Europe next week.
INDIRECT: She said she was leaving for Europe the following week.
What if you have to report a question? For example, how would you report the following questions?
In reported questions, the subject normally comes before the verb and auxiliary “do” is not used.
So, here is what happens when you're reporting a question:
DIRECT: Where’s Mark?
INDIRECT: I asked where Mark was.
DIRECT: When are you going to visit your grandmother?
INDIRECT: He wanted to know when I was going to visit my grandmother.
DIRECT: What do I need to buy for the celebration?
INDIRECT: She asked what she needed to buy for the celebration.
DIRECT: Where are your best friend and his wife staying?
INDIRECT: I asked where his best friend and his wife were staying.
DIRECT: Do you like coffee?
INDIRECT: I asked if she liked coffee.
DIRECT: Can you sing?
INDIRECT: She asked me if I could sing.
DIRECT: Who’s your best friend?
INDIRECT: They asked me who my best friend was.
DIRECT: What time do you usually wake up?
INDIRECT: She asked me what time I usually wake up.
DIRECT: What would you do if you won the lottery?
INDIRECT: He asked me what I would do if I won the lottery.
DIRECT: Do you ever read nonfiction books?
INDIRECT: She asked me if I ever read nonfiction books.
You might have noticed that question marks are not used in reported questions and you don’t use “say” or “tell” either.
When you’re reporting these, you can use the following verbs + an infinitive:
Here are some examples:
DIRECT SPEECH: I’ll always love you.
PROMISE IN INDIRECT SPEECH: She promised to love me.
DIRECT SPEECH: OK, let’s go to the pub.
INDIRECT SPEECH: He agreed to come to the pub with me.
DIRECT SPEECH: Sit down!
INDIRECT SPEECH: They told me to sit down OR they ordered me to sit down.
DIRECT SPEECH: I can go to the post office for you.
INDIRECT SPEECH: She offered to go to the post office.
DIRECT SPEECH: Could I please have the documentation by tomorrow evening?
INDIRECT SPEECH: She requested to have the documentation by the following evening.
DIRECT SPEECH: You should think twice before giving him your phone number.
INDIRECT SPEECH: She advised me to think twice before giving him my phone number.
All right! I hope you have a much clearer idea about what reported speech is and how it’s used.
And the good news is that both direct and indirect speech structures are commonly used in stories, so why not try the StoryLearning method ?
You'll notice this grammatical pattern repeatedly in the context of short stories in English.
Not only will this help you acquire it naturally, but you will also have a fun learning experience by immersing yourself in an interesting and inspiring narrative.
Have a wonderful time learning through books in English !
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Direct speech, changing the tense (backshift), no change of tenses, question sentences, demands/requests, expressions with who/what/how + infinitive, typical changes of time and place.
In English grammar, we use reported speech to say what another person has said. We can use their exact words with quotation marks , this is known as direct speech , or we can use indirect speech . In indirect speech , we change the tense and pronouns to show that some time has passed. Indirect speech is often introduced by a reporting verb or phrase such as ones below.
Learn the rules for writing indirect speech in English with Lingolia’s simple explanation. In the exercises, you can test your grammar skills.
Mandy is sitting in the café where James works. He tells her, “I work in this café almost every day. But yesterday I saw a famous TV presenter here for the first time. She was eating an ice-cream at the table where you are sitting now.” |
A week later, Mandy is speaking to a friend on the phone, “I saw James at the café last week. He said that .” |
When turning direct speech into indirect speech, we need to pay attention to the following points:
If the introductory clause is in the simple past (e.g. He said ), the tense has to be set back by one degree (see the table). The term for this in English is backshift .
direct speech | indirect speech |
---|---|
simple present | simple past |
present progressive | past progressive |
simple past | past perfect simple |
present perfect simple | |
past perfect simple | |
past progressive | past perfect progressive |
present perfect progressive | |
past perfect progressive | |
future (going to) | was / were going to |
future (will) | conditional (would) |
conditional (would) |
The verbs could, should, would, might, must, needn’t, ought to, used to normally do not change.
If the introductory clause is in the simple present , however (e.g. He says ), then the tense remains unchanged, because the introductory clause already indicates that the statement is being immediately repeated (and not at a later point in time).
In some cases, however, we have to change the verb form.
When turning questions into indirect speech, we have to pay attention to the following points:
We don’t just use indirect questions to report what another person has asked. We also use them to ask questions in a very polite manner.
When turning demands and requests into indirect speech, we only need to change the pronouns and the time and place information. We don’t have to pay attention to the tenses – we simply use an infinitive .
If it is a negative demand, then in indirect speech we use not + infinitive .
To express what someone should or can do in reported speech, we leave out the subject and the modal verb and instead we use the construction who/what/where/how + infinitive.
direct speech | indirect speech |
---|---|
today | that day |
now | then at that moment/time |
yesterday | the day before |
… days ago | … days before |
last week | the week before |
next year | the following year |
tomorrow | the next day the following day |
here | there |
this | that |
these | those |
The words say and tell are not interchangeable. say = say something tell = say something to someone
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“Reported speech” might sound fancy, but it isn’t that complicated.
It’s just how you talk about what someone said.
Luckily, it’s pretty simple to learn the basics in English, beginning with the two types of reported speech: direct (reporting the exact words someone said) and indirect (reporting what someone said without using their exact words ).
Read this post to learn how to report speech, with tips and tricks for each, plenty of examples and a resources section that tells you about real world resources you can use to practice reporting speech.
How to report indirect speech, reporting questions in indirect speech, verb tenses in indirect reported speech, simple present, present continuous, present perfect, present perfect continuous, simple past, past continuous, past perfect, past perfect continuous, simple future, future continuous, future perfect, future perfect continuous, authentic resources for practicing reported speech, novels and short stories, native english videos, celebrity profiles.
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
Direct speech refers to the exact words that a person says. You can “report” direct speech in a few different ways.
To see how this works, let’s pretend that I (Elisabeth) told some people that I liked green onions.
Here are some different ways that those people could explain what I said:
Direct speech: “I like green onions,” Elisabeth said.
Direct speech: “I like green onions,” she told me. — In this sentence, we replace my name (Elisabeth) with the pronoun she.
In all of these examples, the part that was said is between quotation marks and is followed by a noun (“she” or “Elisabeth”) and a verb. Each of these verbs (“to say,” “to tell [someone],” “to explain”) are ways to describe someone talking. You can use any verb that refers to speech in this way.
You can also put the noun and verb before what was said.
Direct speech: Elisabeth said, “I like spaghetti.”
The example above would be much more likely to be said out loud than the first set of examples.
Here’s a conversation that might happen between two people:
1: Did you ask her if she liked coffee?
2: Yeah, I asked her.
1: What did she say?
2. She said, “Yeah, I like coffee.” ( Direct speech )
Usually, reporting of direct speech is something you see in writing. It doesn’t happen as often when people are talking to each other.
Direct reported speech often happens in the past. However, there are all kinds of stories, including journalism pieces, profiles and fiction, where you might see speech reported in the present as well.
This is sometimes done when the author of the piece wants you to feel that you’re experiencing events in the present moment.
For example, a profile of Kristen Stewart in Vanity Fair has a funny moment that describes how the actress isn’t a very good swimmer:
Direct speech: “I don’t want to enter the water, ever,” she says. “If everyone’s going in the ocean, I’m like, no.”
Here, the speech is reported as though it’s in the present tense (“she says”) instead of in the past (“she said”).
In writing of all kinds, direct reported speech is often split into two or more parts, as it is above.
Here’s an example from Lewis Carroll’s “ Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland ,” where the speech is even more split up:
Direct speech: “I won’t indeed!” said Alice, in a great hurry to change the subject of conversation. “Are you—are you fond—of—of dogs?” The Mouse did not answer, so Alice went on eagerly: “There is such a nice little dog near our house I should like to show you!”
Reporting indirect speech is what happens when you explain what someone said without using their exact words.
Let’s start with an example of direct reported speech like those used above.
Direct speech: Elisabeth said, “I like coffee.”
As indirect reported speech, it looks like this:
Indirect speech: Elisabeth said she liked coffee.
You can see that the subject (“I”) has been changed to “she,” to show who is being spoken about. If I’m reporting the direct speech of someone else, and this person says “I,” I’d repeat their sentence exactly as they said it. If I’m reporting this person’s speech indirectly to someone else, however, I’d speak about them in the third person—using “she,” “he” or “they.”
You may also notice that the tense changes here: If “I like coffee” is what she said, this can become “She liked coffee” in indirect speech.
However, you might just as often hear someone say something like, “She said she likes coffee.” Since people’s likes and preferences tend to change over time and not right away, it makes sense to keep them in the present tense.
Indirect speech often uses the word “that” before what was said:
Indirect speech: She said that she liked coffee.
There’s no real difference between “She said she liked coffee” and “She said that she liked coffee.” However, using “that” can help make the different parts of the sentence clearer.
Let’s look at a few other examples:
Indirect speech: I said I was going outside today.
Indirect speech: They told me that they wanted to order pizza.
Indirect speech: He mentioned it was raining.
Indirect speech: She said that her father was coming over for dinner.
You can see an example of reporting indirect speech in the funny video “ Cell Phone Crashing .” In this video, a traveler in an airport sits down next to another traveler talking on his cell phone. The first traveler pretends to be talking to someone on his phone, but he appears to be responding to the second traveler’s conversation, which leads to this exchange:
Woman: “Are you answering what I’m saying?”
Man “No, no… I’m on the phone with somebody, sorry. I don’t mean to be rude.” (Direct speech)
Woman: “What was that?”
Man: “I just said I was on the phone with somebody.” (Indirect speech)
When reporting questions in indirect speech, you can use words like “whether” or “if” with verbs that show questioning, such as “to ask” or “to wonder.”
Direct speech: She asked, “Is that a new restaurant?”
Indirect speech: She asked if that was a new restaurant.
In any case where you’re reporting a question, you can say that someone was “wondering” or “wanted to know” something. Notice that these verbs don’t directly show that someone asked a question. They don’t describe an action that happened at a single point in time. But you can usually assume that someone was wondering or wanted to know what they asked.
Indirect speech: She was wondering if that was a new restaurant.
Indirect speech: She wanted to know whether that was a new restaurant.
It can be tricky to know how to use tenses when reporting indirect speech. Let’s break it down, tense by tense.
Sometimes, indirect speech “ backshifts ,” or moves one tense further back into the past. We already saw this in the example from above:
Direct speech: She said, “I like coffee.”
Indirect speech: She said she liked coffee.
Also as mentioned above, backshifting doesn’t always happen. This might seem confusing, but it isn’t that difficult to understand once you start using reported speech regularly.
What tense you use in indirect reported speech often just depends on when what you’re reporting happened or was true.
Let’s look at some examples of how direct speech in certain tenses commonly changes (or doesn’t) when it’s reported as indirect speech.
To learn about all the English tenses (or for a quick review), check out this post .
Direct speech: I said, “I play video games.”
Indirect speech: I said that I played video games (simple past) or I said that I play video games (simple present).
Backshifting into the past or staying in the present here can change the meaning slightly. If you use the first example, it’s unclear whether or not you still play video games; all we know is that you said you played them in the past.
If you use the second example, though, you probably still play video games (unless you were lying for some reason).
However, the difference in meaning is so small, you can use either one and you won’t have a problem.
Direct speech: I said, “I’m playing video games.”
Indirect speech: I said that I was playing video games (past continuous) or I said that I’m playing video games (present continuous).
In this case, you’d likely use the first example if you were telling a story about something that happened in the past.
You could use the second example to repeat or stress what you just said. For example:
Hey, want to go for a walk?
Direct speech: No, I’m playing video games.
But it’s such a nice day!
Indirect speech: I said that I’m playing video games!
Direct speech: Marie said, “I have read that book.”
Indirect speech: Marie said that she had read that book (past perfect) or Marie said that she has read that book (present perfect).
The past perfect is used a lot in writing and other kinds of narration. This is because it helps point out an exact moment in time when something was true.
The past perfect isn’t quite as useful in conversation, where people are usually more interested in what’s true now. So, in a lot of cases, people would use the second example above when speaking.
Direct speech: She said, “I have been watching that show.”
Indirect speech: She said that she had been watching that show (past perfect continuous) or She said that she has been watching that show (present perfect continuous).
These examples are similar to the others above. You could use the first example whether or not this person was still watching the show, but if you used the second example, it’d probably seem like you either knew or guessed that she was still watching it.
Direct speech: You told me, “I charged my phone.”
Indirect speech: You told me that you had charged your phone (past perfect) or You told me that you charged your phone (simple past).
Here, most people would probably just use the second example, because it’s simpler, and gets across the same meaning.
Direct speech: You told me, “I was charging my phone.”
Indirect speech: You told me that you had been charging your phone (past perfect continuous) or You told me that you were charging your phone (past continuous).
Here, the difference is between whether you had been charging your phone before or were charging your phone at the time. However, a lot of people would still use the second example in either situation.
Direct speech: They explained, “We had bathed the cat on Wednesday.”
Indirect speech: They explained that they had bathed the cat on Wednesday. (past perfect)
Once we start reporting the past perfect tenses, we don’t backshift because there are no tenses to backshift to.
So in this case, it’s simple. The tense stays exactly as is. However, many people might simplify even more and use the simple past, saying, “They explained that they bathed the cat on Wednesday.”
Direct speech: They said, “The cat had been going outside and getting dirty for a long time!”
Indirect speech: They said that the cat had been going outside and getting dirty for a long time. (past perfect continuous)
Again, we don’t shift the tense back here; we leave it like it is. And again, a lot of people would report this speech as, “They said the cat was going outside and getting dirty for a long time.” It’s just a simpler way to say almost the same thing.
Direct speech: I told you, “I will be here no matter what.”
Indirect speech: I told you that I would be here no matter what. (present conditional)
At this point, we don’t just have to think about tenses, but grammatical mood, too. However, the idea is still pretty simple. We use the conditional (with “would”) to show that at the time the words were spoken, the future was uncertain.
In this case, you could also say, “I told you that I will be here no matter what,” but only if you “being here” is still something that you expect to happen in the future.
What matters here is what’s intended. Since this example shows a person reporting their own speech, it’s more likely that they’d want to stress the truth of their own intention, and so they might be more likely to use “will” than “would.”
But if you were reporting someone else’s words, you might be more likely to say something like, “She told me that she would be here no matter what.”
Direct speech: I said, “I’ll be waiting for your call.”
Indirect speech: I said that I would be waiting for your call. (conditional continuous)
These are similar to the above examples, but apply to a continuous or ongoing action.
Direct speech: She said, “I will have learned a lot about myself.”
Indirect speech: She said that she would have learned a lot about herself (conditional perfect) or She said that she will have learned a lot about herself (future perfect).
In this case, using the conditional (as in the first example) suggests that maybe a certain event didn’t happen, or something didn’t turn out as expected.
However, that might not always be the case, especially if this was a sentence that was written in an article or a work of fiction. The second example, however, suggests that the future that’s being talked about still hasn’t happened yet.
Direct speech: She said, “By next Tuesday, I will have been staying inside every day for the past month.”
Indirect speech: She said that by next Tuesday, she would have been staying inside every day for the past month (perfect continuous conditional) or She said that by next Tuesday, she will have been staying inside every day for the past month (past perfect continuous).
Again, in this case, the first example might suggest that the event didn’t happen. Maybe the person didn’t stay inside until next Tuesday! However, this could also just be a way of explaining that at the time she said this in the past, it was uncertain whether she really would stay inside for as long as she thought.
The second example, on the other hand, would only be used if next Tuesday hadn’t happened yet.
Let’s take a look at where you can find resources for practicing reporting speech in the real world.
One of the most common uses for reported speech is in fiction. You’ll find plenty of reported speech in novels and short stories . Look for books that have long sections of text with dialogue marked by quotation marks (“…”). Once you understand the different kinds of reported speech, you can look for it in your reading and use it in your own writing.
Writing your own stories is a great way to get even better at understanding reported speech.
One of the best ways to practice any aspect of English is to watch native English videos. By watching English speakers use the language, you can understand how reported speech is used in real world situations.
FluentU takes authentic videos—like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks—and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.
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Celebrity profiles, which you can find in print magazines and online, can help you find and practice reported speech, too. Celebrity profiles are stories that focus on a famous person. They often include some kind of interview. The writer will usually spend some time describing the person and then mention things that they say; this is when they use reported speech.
Because many of these profiles are written in the present tense, they can help you get used to the basics of reported speech without having to worry too much about different verb tenses.
While the above may seem really complicated, it isn’t that difficult to start using reported speech.
Mastering it may be a little difficult, but the truth is that many, many people who speak English as a first language struggle with it, too!
Reported speech is flexible, and even if you make mistakes, there’s a good chance that no one will notice.
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Learn how to use reported speech in English. Reported speech is also known as indirect speech and is used to tell somebody else what another person said. Using reported speech in English can sometimes be difficult for non-native speakers as we (usually) change the verbs, pronouns and specific times.
Keep reading to understand how to use reported speech and download this free English lesson!
Reported speech vs. direct speech.
When we want to tell somebody else what another person said, we can use either direct speech or reported speech .
When we use d irect speech, we use the same words but use quotation marks, “_”. For example:
Scott said, “I am coming to work. I will be late because there is a lot of traffic now.”
When we use r eported speech, we usually change the verbs, specific times, and pronouns. For example:
Scott said that he was coming to work. He said that he would be late because there was a lot of traffic at that time.
Since reported speech is usually talking about the past, we usually change the verbs into the past. It is always necessary to change the verbs when the action has finished or is untrue.
We do not always change the verbs. When you are reporting an action that is still current or true, it is not necessary to change the verb tense. For example:
How old are you? “ I am twenty-seven years old .” She said she is twenty-seven years old.
We usually follow the rules below. When we are reporting speech, we are usually talking about the past; therefore, we change the verbs into the past.
|
|
“I eat pizza.” | He said (that) he ate pizza. |
“I am eating pizza.” | He said (that) he was eating pizza. |
“I will eat pizza.” | He said (that) he would eat pizza. |
“I am going to eat pizza.” | He said (that) he was going to eat pizza. |
When we are reporting past actions, it is not always necessary to change the verb tense. We can usually leave the verbs in the same tense and just change the pronouns. However, we sometimes need to use the to clarify the time order of events. the never changes in . | |
“I ate pizza.” “I ate pizza, so I am not hungry.” | He said (that) he ate pizza. He said (that) he had eaten pizza, so he wasn’t hungry.” |
“I was eating pizza.” “I was eating pizza when she called.” | He said (that) he was eating pizza. He said (that) he had been eating pizza when she called. |
We use a special form when we report questions:
WH-Questions:
Where is + Tom’s house ? He asked where Tom’s house + was.
Where does Tom live? He asked where Tom lived.
Yes/No Questions:
Does Tom live in Miami? She asked if Tom lived in Miami.
Is Tom happy? She asked if Tom was happy.
Say vs. Tell
Say Something
June: “I love English .”
June said (that) she loved English.
Tell Someone Something
June: “I love English.”
June told me (that) she loved English.
Must, might, could, would, should , and ought to stay the same in re ported s peech . We usually change may to might .
Infinitives stay the same in reported speech:
“ I am going to the store to buy milk.” He said he was going to the store to buy milk.
We also use infinitives when reporting orders and commands, especially when using tell .
“ Do your homework. Don’t use a dictionary!!” He told me to do to my homework and not to use a dictionary.
When we are reporting another speakers suggestions, we can use a special form with suggest, recommend, or propose .
SUGGEST/ RECOMMEND/PROPOSE + (*THAT) + SUBJECT PRONOUN + **V1
SUGGEST/ RECOMMEND/PROPOSE + V1 + ING
“I think you should visit Viscaya.” → He suggested we visit Viscaya. He suggested visiting Viscaya.
“Try to get there early to get good seats.” → He recommended we get there early to get good seats.
*That is often omitted in speech.
**The verb is always in the base form. We do not use third person.
A reported statement begins with an introductory clause and is followed by the ‘information’ clause. The speaker may choose different words, but the meaning remains unchanged. Some formal words to introduce a reported statement or response are: declared, stated, informed, responded, replied, etc.
“I don’t agree with these new rules. I am not going to accept this change!” → He declared that he was in disagreement with the new rules and stated that he would not accept the changes.
Free English Lesson PDF Download
A. Change each direct speech example into the reported speech . The first one has been done for you.
Michelle said that she loved her Chihuahua, Daisy.
2. Republicans said, “We don’t support Obama’s plan to raise taxes.”
__________________________________________________________.
3.With her mouth full, Sarah said, “I am eating mashed potatoes.”
4. John Lee said, “This year, I will not pay my taxes.”
5. Lebron said, “I am going to win the championship next year.”
6. Patty said, “I can’t stomach another hamburger. I ate one yesterday.”
B. Rewrite the sentences/questions below using reported / indirect speech . Always change the tense, even though it is not always necessary. You can use ‘said’, ‘told me’ , or ‘asked’ .
1. Sarah: “I am in the shower right now.”
_____________________________________________________________________________
2. John: “I dropped my son off at school this morning.”
3. Samuel: “I am going to the beach with my sister this afternoon.”
4. John: “Jessica will call you later.”
5. The girls: “Who does John live with?”
6. Our classmate: “Did we have any homework last night?”
7. Sarah: “I am moving to Tokyo because I want to learn Japanese.”
8. John: “Why do you have an umbrella?”
9. The students: “Our teacher can’t find her books anywhere.”
10. Sarah and Jillian: “Is John British?”
11. Steve: “I’m going to the beach so that I can play volleyball.”
__________________________________________________________________________________
12. Ann: “Where is the bathroom?”
13. My parents: “What are you going to do with your life?”
14. Sarah: “I ate breakfast before I came to school.”
C. Your friend Megan is very nosy (she always wants to know what’s going on) so she constantly asks questions about your life and the lives of your friends. Rewrite her questions using the reported questions form. The first one has been done for you .
1. Why do you date Ryan?
She asked me why I dated Ryan.
2. How much money do you make at your new job?
________________________________________________________________________________
3. Does Ryan think I’m pretty?
4. Where is your favorite restaurant?
5. Do I look good in these jeans?
6. Can I borrow some twenty bucks?
D. Your American grandfather is telling you about how things used to be. Using the reported speech , tell your friends what he said.
“In the 1930s, people were very poor. They ate watery soup and hard bread. Many people lost their jobs. To make matters worse, a horrible drought ruined most of the farmland in the American midwest. People went to California to look for a better life. They picked strawberries in the hot California sun.”
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If you have any questions about English grammar, please contact us via email us or just comment below. I hope this lesson helped you understand how to use reported speech in English.
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Backshift and place expressions.
Imagine you want to repeat sentences that you heard two weeks ago in another place. Rewrite the sentences in reported speech. Change pronouns and expressions of time and place where necessary.
|
Reported speech – paraphrasing practice +key.
Rewrite the sentences in indirect speech using the verb given! Add prepositions where needed.
A direct speech can be transformed into an indirect speech and vice versa using a suitable reporting verb and a linker depending on the sentence. Let’s have an example first.
Direct Speech
Tina | said | “Are you busy now?” |
Indirect Speech
Tina | asked | whether | I was busy then. |
List of Reporting verbs and linkers (list 1)
Said, told | That | |
1. Yes-no question 2. Wh-question | Asked, wanted to know, enquired | If / whether |
Asked, wanted to know, enquired | wh-word | |
1. Without ‘Let’ 2. With ‘Let’ | Told, ordered, advised, requested, asked | to / not to |
Suggested, proposed | that | |
Wished, prayed | that | |
Exclaimed in joy / sorrow / wonder / fear / disgust etc. | that |
Verbs of Reported speech (if the reporting verb is in past tense) (list 2) Direct speech → Indirect speech Am / is / are → was / were Was / were → had been Has / have → had Had → had had Shall / will → would Can → could May → might Must, should → must, should Verb1 → verb2 Verb2 → had + verb3
Change of time and place expressions in past tense (list 3) now → then ago → before today → that day yesterday → the previous day tomorrow → the next day last night → the previous night here → there this → that these → those
Narration change of interrogative sentence, narration change of imperative sentence, narration change of optative sentence, narration change of exclamatory sentence, narration change of vocatives, narration change of question tag.
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ELT Concourse teacher training |
The first section mostly reiterates material in the initial training section and is here as a reminder of the basics. You can skip this if you are already aware of the basic issues or have recently worked through the initial training section for this area. If that is the case, skim through what follows, and/or do the mini-test or use this menu to go to the area you need and then move on. It's up to you.
and | -questions | |||
and | ||||
At the end of each section, you can click on -top- to return to this menu, simply read on, scroll back or bookmark the page for another time.
In what follows, we are going to consider four sorts of utterances which are often reported:
On the left we have the direct speech – the words uttered. On the right we have reported or indirect speech – how the message is passed on.
On the face of it, there's nothing terribly difficult about this idea. The tense shifts back one (from, e.g., was to had been, from can to could ) . At the same time, I changes to he , we changes to they and so on. Here's a list of the changes in English.
Language item | Change |
Present simple changes to past simple | |
Past simple, present perfect and past perfect all come out as past perfect | I have been to France She said she had been to France I had been to France She said she had been to France |
Present progressive changes to past progressive | |
Future 'will' changes to 'would' | |
Future 'will be'+ ing changes to 'would be' + -ing | |
Future 'will have' + past participle changes to 'would have' + past participle | |
Other changes | |
Pronouns change as appropriate | |
Time and place expressions change as appropriate | I am going tomorrow He said he was going the next day |
Modal auxiliary verbs change to their 'past' equivalents if there is one | I must go now He said he had to go then |
A small but significant source of error in reporting in British English is that the intrusive got in, for example: I have got enough money is dropped when the tense is backshifted so we get: He said he had enough money However, when the structure is used to express either:
Deixis |
Here's a definition:
The name given to those aspects of language whose interpretation is relative to the occasion of utterance Fillmore (1966) in Harman (1989)
It's an important phenomenon in this area because the use of deixis neatly explains a lot of the so-called anomalies of indirect speech. Because meaning is dependent on the identity, point of view, time and location of the speaker / writer we are obliged (or not) to change, e.g., I to he or she, we to they , bring to come, come to go (and go to come ) , this to that, here to there, yesterday to the previous day, now to then, bring to take and so on. We make these changes because of a movement to the deictical centre. This is usually I, now and here so we make changes to allow for this. There are three types of deixis which affect the way we report what people say:
In this regard, the following changes now make more sense:
Direct speech | Indirect speech | The movement of the deictical centre |
From to to to and to (spatial personal and temporal deictical changes) | ||
From to and to (personal and temporal shifting) | ||
From to and from to (spatial and personal centre shifting) |
Once again, we find that context makes meaning .
For more, there is a guide to deixis on this site, linked below, which includes a larger image of the wheel above and explains what it all means.
Using common sense |
Of course, not all changes are always appropriate (but using the changes will usually be correct). If we are reporting something virtually simultaneously, then we often don't change the tense or time expressions. If we are reporting something in the same place, then we don't change the place expressions. Another way of putting this is to refer to the encoding time (when the statement was made) and the decoding time (when the statement was reported). If the encoding and decoding times are the same, few if any changes need to be made to time markers and tense forms. So we might get: A: I'm going there now. B: What did he say? C: He said he's going there now However, if the encoding and decoding times are sufficiently separated, we do make changes accordingly so the exchange might end as: He said he was going there then.
If an utterance remains true, we often don't change the tense so we get, e.g., I'm from South Africa = He said he's from South Africa I love the countryside = She said she loves the countryside
Try this matching exercise to make sure you have understood so far.
Did you notice the changes, particularly with time and place expressions but also with the verb come (which changed to go )?
If you have followed so far, this will be familiar:
1 | 4 | ||
2 | 5 | ||
3 | 6 |
It's clear that we have examples of direct speech and indirect speech here in sentences 1, 4, 2 and 5 but Sentence 6 is what is called a hybrid form because the first part follows the 'rules' but the second part actually changes only the pronoun, from you to I . If the sentence followed the reported speech 'rules', it should be He said I was welcome to come and asked if I would like to bring Mary which is another possibility, of course, but sounds quite formal.
Statements or declarative utterances are routinely reported using that- clauses as in, for example:
There are two things to notice even with the simplest type of reporting of direct statements.
Incidentally, the rule for ordering in direct speech is that you cannot reverse the verb and subject pronoun but you can reverse a noun or noun phrase subject and verb. We allow, therefore: "That's the bus," said John and "That's the bus," John said and "That's the bus," he said but "That's the bus,", said he is now hopelessly archaic.
Reporting closed questions with and | |
Closed questions are those which require a Yes or No response and they are usually reported with if or whether . We get, therefore, for example: Are you going to the cinema? reported as He asked her if she was going to the cinema There is a bit more to it, however.
Consider what direct speech is being reported in the following.
When you have done that, try reporting these sentences (from the point of view of later and elsewhere). Then click to reveal the comment .
You should have something like:
In reporting a direct question, you can use if or whether interchangeably but if you are reporting someone's thoughts and doubts, only whether is usually the choice.
The other important thing to make sure that learners get right is the word ordering when reporting a question. There are three issues to consider:
Many languages do not work this way and the transfer from L 1 to L T often produces errors like: *She asked were they English *She wondered should she go *They enquired whether did the train stop at Margate?
Reporting questions | |
Questions phrased using wh- words: who, what, why, when, which, where, how cannot be predicted to have a Yes-No-Maybe answer. Questions formed in this way cannot be reported with if or whether . The reporting is done by embedding the questions. This means that reporting this type of question requires a different word ordering from that used in reporting yes-no questions (see above) and that is non-intuitive. Many learners, having struggled to get the word ordering of yes-no questions right, logically transfer the rule concerning not disturbing the natural word ordering to wh-question s with resulting error. We can get, therefore: *She asked me where is the station *They enquired when are we coming *She asked what did I do for a living etc.
Embedding is often associated with polite questioning so, instead of the direct: Where is the station? we form polite embedded questions such as Can you tell me where the station is?
So it is with reported questions. Thus:
→ | ||
→ | ||
→ | ||
→ | ||
→ |
The tense chosen will often conform to the time and place of the reporting using the common-sense rules discussed above although back-shifting tenses where possible is common even when the reporting is virtually simultaneous.
The big issue for learners with this kind of reporting is the ordering of the subject and verb. Most first languages will lead learners to produce errors such as: *Can you tell me when is the film beginning? *Do you know who is the lady there? etc. And this will also carry over to reported questions so we get: *She asked me where is the zoo *They enquired what time did the train leave and so on.
Other reporting verbs such as explain, clarify, complain, mention, remember and state will produce similar errors because the structures are parallel to reported questions in English but not parallelled in many other languages. We may encounter, therefore: *She explained how did the machine work *They clarified what did they need *I remembered where was I going
There is more on the quirky nature of some reporting verbs below.
If the direct question is formed with who, which or what with the verb be as part of the predicate, it is possible to disturb the word order outlined above. For example, the following can be reported in two ways, like this:
or | ||||
or | ||||
or |
However, the word ordering with the reversal of subject and verb is always correct, so, for teaching purposes, that is the way to go. Your learners may, however, encounter this disturbance so it's as well to be prepared for it and note that it only occurs in the limited circumstances set out here.
The disturbed word order is, however, always conventional when the question involves be as a simple copula with an adjectival attribute. So, for example: Which is best? is reported as: She asked which was best not as: *She asked which best was
that and |
What are the rules for using that and what in reported speech? Report the following using that or what if possible and then reveal the commentary .
Rule 1: you can't use that in reporting questions or if -clauses. So we can have: He said (that) he was coming then / is coming now She said (that) she didn't / doesn't know her name She said (that) her name is / was Mary but not: *He asked that is her name *She said she would not go that if it rained Rule 2: Conditional sentences may be back-shifted but that may not be used in them. At all other times, that can be dropped with no loss of sense, but some loss of formality. On the dropping or not of that with bridge and non-bridge verbs, see below. Rule 3: to report open questions , we have choices. We can't use that but we can, with a change to an embedded question, use what : He asked her her name / He asked her what her name was but not, usually: ?He asked her what was her name
Tense shifting |
As we saw in part 1 of this guide, tense shifting is common in English and it is rarely wrong to do it. However:
Reporting commands and exclamations |
We saw above that question forms are reported differently from statements. How would you report these? Click here to reveal some comments .
Sentence 19 could be rendered as She exclaimed / said / remarked loudly what awful weather it was . It can't be reported without a change of grammar. Sentence 20 can be reported as She told John to stop fidgeting but ... Sentence 21 can't be reported this way. It has to be something like She growled at John to stop fidgeting Note that we have to insert the object here.
Reporting verbs |
Essentially, there are three types. Can you categorise this list into three groups? Click to reveal , as usual.
Simple reporting verbs | Verbs which show how something was said | Verbs which show the intentions of the speaker |
The simple reporting verbs in the left-hand column often require only the deixis, pronoun and tense shifts covered in this guide. So we can have, e.g.:
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→ |
→ | ||
→ | ||
→ | ||
→ | ||
→ | ||
→ | ||
→ |
in which the verbs are arranged in relation to the strength of the statement made so, for example: "I must have the steak," she said could be reported as: She insisted on having the steak and "I'd like the steak," she said as She said she'd like the steak but "I wonder if I might have the steak," she said as She enquired whether she could have the steak This has some pedagogical utility, of course, because it gives learners a way of understanding the connotations of the verbs. However, the categories are not unarguable and people will put different verbs in different boxes. It is a rule of thumb at best.
Some reporting verbs are used to report an embedded or fronted comment clause so, for example, something like: "She is, as you well know, quite capable." may be reported as: He insisted that I knew that she was quite capable. Other comment clauses such as in: "Well, to be honest, I don't have a clue." and "As you know, I've been living here for years." may be reported using an appropriate reporting verb but maintaining the adverbial as: He explained that he honestly didn't have a clue. or as: He reminded me that he had been living there for years.
There is a difference in the way that such clauses are reported depending on the role of the disjunct adverbial.
Purely for information, there's a PDF of a list of reporting verbs in English list which considers the syntactical restraints concerned with them. The list also includes some consideration of the functions of reporting verbs and categorises them accordingly. Click to download a list of reporting verbs . Don't try to teach them all at once!
There is also a guide to the kinds of reporting verbs used in academic writing, linked below, which contains a list of over 150 verbs such as state, aver, suggest, discount, dismiss, investigate etc.
Bridge and non-bridge verbs |
The issue here is whether one can omit the word that from a reported statement. The theoretical distinction is between what are called bridge verbs and non-bridge verbs. Many simple reporting verbs verbs such as say, tell, think, know, write, claim and hear are bridge verbs and it is perfectly in order to omit the word that when they are followed by a clause so we allow both: He said that he was coming tomorrow John thinks that it's too expensive She claims that she lost the money etc. and: He said he was coming tomorrow John thinks it's too expensive She claims she lost the money Many find (that) the sentences without that are more stylistically acceptable.
However, some verbs, exemplified above with verbs like cry, sneer and shout , refer not only to what was said but to how it was said and these are often non-bridge verbs and leaving out that results in clumsiness at best. For example, many people find: She shouted she was coming She whispered the chairman was drunk He lied he was married They acknowledged coming late was rude are all clumsy or even wrong and should be expressed with that as: She shouted that she was coming She whispered that the chairman was drunk He lied that he was married They acknowledged that coming late was rude In general terms, the less common and more loaded reporting verbs require that when followed by a clause . Here are some examples of how non-bridge verbs are used when reporting:
In all those case where we choose to follow the reporting verb with a clause, the insertion of that is almost obligatory. In the last case, not including that results in: The minister conceded having long periods of unemployment made it difficult to get work in the future which forces the hearer to reconsider who has long periods of unemployment.
In academic writing simple verbs are often avoided for the sake of style or precision and less frequently used so non-bridge verbs are usually preferred. For example: Guru confirms that the results are reliable He acknowledged that the experiment was flawed The findings indicate that there is a need for ... She emphasises that findings are provisional all sound clumsy without that .
Clause length is a factor which tends to override the omission of that even with simple reporting verbs so while, for example: I said, without much optimism based on his previous track record, he would come is correct and the omission of that is acceptable, most native speakers would insert it to signal the subordinate clause as: I said, without much optimism based on his previous track record, that he would come
TELL | ASK / SUGGEST | ANSWER | KNOW | SAY | STATE |
The categories are not watertight but once a learner has decided on a speaker's intentions in terms of the function of what was said (rather than the form), it becomes a good deal simpler to select an appropriate reporting verb providing, of course, that the structural constraints which apply to many of them are understood, too. Should you wish it, that list is included in the list of reporting verbs with the colligational characteristics, available here .
Reporting verbs for question forms |
Reporting verbs for true questions form a restricted set which is straightforward to teach. Almost a complete list is: ask, enquire, want to know, wonder For example:
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→ | ||
→ |
However, question forms also routinely perform other functions than asking for information and when this happens, other reporting verbs are necessary to reflect the illocutionary force of the utterance. Like this:
Requests | ||
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→ | ||
→ | ||
Offers | ||
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→ | ||
→ | ||
Suggestions | ||
→ | ||
→ | ||
→ | ||
→ | ||
Exclamations | ||
→ | ||
Complaints | ||
→ | ||
→ |
As with much in language, we have to look at the function, not the form, to decide on the right way to report the words.
Grammatical constraints on reporting verbs |
Colligation with reporting verbs is something of a headache for learners of English and there are numerous constraints and possibilities. Reporting verbs can be categorised by what they may be followed by and it is certainly not intuitive to understand, for example, that we can say: He confirmed that I had passed but we cannot say: *He congratulated that I passed Here are some of the common issues. For a list of reporting verbs and their grammatical constraints and possibilities, download the PDF file from the link above or at the end.
Passive uses of reporting verbs |
There are times when the source of something said or written is obscure, unknown or unimportant and others when we wish to disguise the source and in these cases a passive clause construction with the dummy it comes to the rescue. In academic texts the structure is also used to cite something so well known in a field of enquiry that it needs no sourcing. For example: It has been suggested that ... It is often questioned whether ... It has been asked whether ... It is generally reckoned that ... and so on. These constructions are not difficult to teach and are communicatively very useful ways of avoiding the need to say who said or wrote something.
Sometimes, we can use the same kind of passive construction without the dummy pronoun when the source of what has been said or written is unknown, absent or unimportant. For example: She has been told to ... I have often be accused of ... They are said to be ... The house is reputed to be ... etc.
At other times, we may wish to emphasise the source of a statement and the passive is also used in this way, of course, so we may encounter, for example: I have been accused by Mary of ... She has been asked by the boss to ... The comment has been made by the department head that ... and so on.
Modal auxiliary verbs |
Modal auxiliary verbs are frequently defective insofar as some have no tense forms at all, some have past and future forms which use a different verb altogether and some only have tense forms in certain meanings. It is a complicated area. (For more, follow some of the guides from the index of modality.)
→ | (then) or (now) | |
→ | (then) or (timeless enduring ability) or (timeless) or even (future offer or ability) | |
→ | (then) or (now / future) | |
→ | (now or in the future) (then or now) |
→ | (then or now) | |
→ | (then or now) | |
→ | (then or now) | |
→ | (a discontinued past habit) | |
→ | (current mild obligation) |
→ | (permission given in the past) | |
→ | (concerning a current future possibility) or (concerning a possibility in the past) | |
→ | (concerning a slightly less likely possibility then or now) |
→ | (present possibility) or (present or past possibility) | |
→ | (an unfulfilled duty) | |
→ | (concerning a possibility then or now) | |
→ | (past or present) or (present only) |
Teaching issues |
There is nothing very difficult about the form of reported speech changes (providing a learner is already familiar with the tense forms of English). However:
Teaching the mechanics of indirect speech is not too challenging providing the learners have a grasp of the tense forms and pronoun systems but one does need to address different forms separately or it all becomes a mass of data that bewilders learners. A sensible approach is to apply the analysis as above, focusing on reporting declarative statements, yes-no questions, open, wh- questions, exclamations, orders and so on separately before making any attempt to combine ideas.
Here's an idea for teaching indirect speech and still applying the common-sense rules.
Your name: ________________ | |||
Always true | Example: | Your sentence: | ____________________________________ |
The past | Example: | Your sentence: | ____________________________________ |
Tomorrow | Example: | Your sentence: | ____________________________________ |
Obviously, this is contrived and artificial to some extent but it is personalised and situates the language temporally and spatially. It is certainly better than meaningless sentence-transformation exercises.
Because the word order when reporting questions and using a number of the reporting verbs is a common source of error, it is worth practising separately. Fortunately, the use of back-shifting, even for virtually simultaneous reporting, is also common so there is less need to set up delayed reporting.
You can set up the task to exclude one or other type of question, of course, but that's a lot less natural.
Reporting verbs in English need careful handling and there are a number of issues:
Related guides | |
for an alternative way to look at reported or embedded questions | |
for a list of the commonest possibilities with some consideration of their colligational characteristics | |
for a guide to reporting what people said or wrote in EAP contexts | |
for a short guide devoted only to embedded questions (of which reported speech is one example) | |
for the dedicated guide to the area | |
for the index to guides to this area | |
for more on a key area |
Click here for the test .
References: Chalker, S, 1987, Current English Grammar , London: Macmillan Harman, I P, 1989, Teaching indirect speech: deixis points the way, English Language Teaching Journal, Volume 44, No 3, pp230-238, Oxford: Oxford University Press
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1. Read the direct speech and complete the reported speech.
1) ‘I haven’t told the police about the vandalism,’ said Adrian.
Adrian said that ______________ the vandalism.
2) ‘I can’t find passport,’ said Julia.
Julia said that she ______________ passport.
3) ‘I’ll be at the park at 7 o’clock,’ said Daniel.
Daniel said that ______________ 7 o’clock.
4) ‘Somebody has stolen new bike,’ said Joanna.
Joanna said that ______________ new bike.
5) ‘ dad will lend me some money for the train,’ said Tina.
Tina said that ______________ the train.
6) ‘I can speak French, but I can’t speak Spanish,’ said Sara.
Sara said that ______________ Spanish.
7) ‘I’ve invited all of friends to a barbecue at house,’ said Michael.
Michael said that ______________ house.
8) ‘I won’t tell anybody about the surprise party,’ said Anna.
Anna said that ______________ surprise party.
1) Adrian said that he hadn’t told the police about the vandalism.
2) Julia said that she couldn’t find her passport.
3) Julia said that she would be at the park at 7 o’clock.
4) Joanna said that somebody had stolen her new bike.
5) Olga said that her dad would lend her some money for the train.
6) Sara said that she could speak French, but she couldn’t speak Spanish.
7) Michael said that he had invited all of his friends to a barbecue at his house.
8) Anna said that she wouldn’t tell anybody about the surprise party.
2. Complete the sentences with said or told.
1) Chloe ______________ she would enjoy visiting the castle.
2) Jack ______________ you his sister couldn’t swim.
3) Evie ______________ the teacher that she had finished the exercise.
4) Emma ______________ James would be home soon.
5) Max ______________ everyone that he had met a famous actor.
6) Amelia ______________ her dad she’d get home be 10 o’clock.
7) Steve ______________ his cousins couldn’t speak English.
8) Jess ______________ Lily had always been her best friend.
1) said 2) told 3) told 4) said 5) told 6) told
7) said 8) said
3. Change the reported speech in exercise 2 into direct speech.
1) Chloe: ‘ I’ll enjoy visiting the castle. ’
2) Jack: ‘________’
3) Evie: ‘________’
4) Emma: ‘________’
5) Max: ‘________’
6) Amelia: ‘________’
7) Steve: ‘________’
8) Jess: ‘________’
2) ‘ sister can’t swim.’
3) ‘I’ve finished the exercise.’
4) ‘James will be home soon.’
5) ‘I met a famous film actor!’
6) ‘I’ll be home by 10 o’clock, dad.’
7) ‘ cousins can’t speak English.’
8) ‘Lily has always been best friend.’
4. Read the dialogue. Then rewrite is as reported speech. Remember to change pronouns and time references if necessary.
Joe I’ve seen two crimes this week. On Monday, I saw a robbery in the shopping centre.
Freya I heard about that on the news!
Joe I was there. I took lots of photos of the robbers on phone.
Freya You’ll probably get a reward!
Joe I won’t get a reward because I can’t show the photos to the police.
Freya I don’t understand ___
Joe Yesterday, I was the victim of another crime. A thief stole phone on the bus!
Joe said he had seen two crimes that week. He said that on Monday, he ________________
____________________
__ had seen a robbery in the shopping centre.
Freya said she’d heard about it on the news.
Joe said (that) he had been there. he said he had taken lots of photos of the robbers on his phone.
Freya said (that) he’d probably get a reward.
Joe said (that) he wouldn’t get a reward. he said (that) he couldn’t show the photos to the police.
Freya said (that) she didn’t understand.
Joe said (that), the day before, he’d been the victim of another crime. he said (that) a thief had stolen his phone on the bus.
5. Complete the sentences with reported speech, using your own ideas.
1) Our teacher told us we’d ____________________
2) best friend said that ____________________ soon.
3) I once told friend that ____________________
your own answers
6. Rewrite the sentences in reported speech.
1) ‘Tell me everything you know about the suspect,’ Inspector Morris said to her.
Inspector Morris ordered her _________.
2) ‘There is something in this flat we are not seeing,’ the detective said to his partner.
The detective _________.
3) ‘Is this your phone?’ the man asked her.
The man _________.
4) ‘The train has been late every morning this week,’ the girl told us.
The girl told _________.
5) ‘How many times did he come into the shop?’ the detective asked.
The detective wondered _________.
6) ‘I first realised that car was missing last night,’ the man told the officer.
7) ‘I won’t tell you where son was yesterday,’ the woman said to the detective.
The woman refused _________.
1) to tell him/her everything she knew about the suspect.
2) said there was something in that flat they were not seeing.
3) asked her if that was her phone.
4) us that the train had been late every morning that week.
5) how many times he had come into the shop.
6) told the officer that he had first realised that his car was missing the night before.
7) to say where her son had been the day before.
Rewrite the following passage so that instead of direct speech (quotes) it includes indirect, or reported, speech. The first sentence has been done for you as an example.
“These are what Alex used to drink,” says Westerberg with a frown, swirling the ice in his White Russian. “He used to sit right there at the end of the bar and tell us these amazing stories of his travels. He could talk for hours. A lot of folks here in town got pretty attached to old Alex. Kind of a strange deal what happened to him.”
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Rewrite the sentences in reported speech. Change pronouns and time expressions where necessary. She said, "I am reading." They said, "We are busy." He said, "I know a better restaurant." She said, "I woke up early." He said, "I will ring her." They said, "We have just arrived." He said, "I will clean the car."
Direct: "I will help you," she promised. Reported: She promised that she would help me. Direct: "You should study harder," he advised. Reported: He advised that I should study harder. Direct: "I didn't take your book," he denied. Reported: He denied taking my book. Direct: "Let's go to the cinema," she suggested.
Reported speech: indirect speech - English Grammar Today - a reference to written and spoken English grammar and usage - Cambridge Dictionary
Rewrite the demands/requests in indirect speech. The passenger requested the taxi driver, "Stop the car.". → The passenger requested the taxi driver . to + same wording as in direct speech. The mother told her son, "Don't be so loud.". → The mother told her son . not to + same wording as in direct speech, but remove don't.
Reported speech, also known as indirect speech, is a way of retelling what someone else has said without repeating their exact words. For example, let's say you have a friend called Jon and one called Mary. Mary has organised a house party and has invited you and Jon. Jon, however, is not feeling well.
Introduction. In English grammar, we use reported speech to say what another person has said. We can use their exact words with quotation marks, this is known as direct speech, or we can use indirect speech. In indirect speech, we change the tense and pronouns to show that some time has passed. Indirect speech is often introduced by a reporting ...
Direct speech: Elisabeth said, "I like coffee.". As indirect reported speech, it looks like this: Indirect speech: Elisabeth said she liked coffee. You can see that the subject ("I") has been changed to "she," to show who is being spoken about. If I'm reporting the direct speech of someone else, and this person says "I," I'd ...
We usually follow the rules below. When we are reporting speech, we are usually talking about the past; therefore, we change the verbs into the past. Direct Speech. Reported Speech. Simple Present: "I eat pizza.". Simple Past: He said (that) he ate pizza. Present Continuous: "I am eating pizza.".
Yes, and you report it with a reporting verb. He said he wanted to know about reported speech. I said, I want and you changed it to he wanted. Exactly. Verbs in the present simple change to the past simple; the present continuous changes to the past continuous; the present perfect changes to the past perfect; can changes to could; will changes ...
What is indirect speech or reported speech? When we tell people what another person said or thought, we often use reported speech or indirect speech. To do that, we need to change verb tenses (present, past, etc.) and pronouns (I, you, my, your, etc.) if the time and speaker are different.For example, present tenses become past, I becomes he or she, and my becomes his or her, etc.
Rewrite the sentences in reported speech. Change pronouns and expressions of time and place where necessary. They said, "This is our book." → They said. She said, "I went to the cinema yesterday." → She said. He said, "I am writing a test tomorrow." → He said. You said, "I will do this for him."
Reported Speech - Paraphrasing Practice +Key. Rewrite the sentences in indirect speech using the verb given! Add prepositions where needed. "Milli Vanilli lip-synched all the time," the manager said. ADMITTED. "I will call you back" she said. OFFERED. "You lied to me" he shouted. ACCUSED.
A direct speech can be transformed into an indirect speech and vice versa using a suitable reporting verb and a linker depending on the sentence. Let's have an example first. Tina said to me, "Are you busy now?" [direct speech] Tina asked me whether I was busy then. [indirect speech] Direct Speech. Speaker. Reporting verb. Direct speech ...
Reported or indirect speech. The first section mostly reiterates material in the initial training section and is here as a reminder of the basics. You can skip this if you are already aware of the basic issues or have recently worked through the initial training section for this area. If that is the case, skim through what follows, and/or do ...
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4. Read the dialogue. Then rewrite is as reported speech. Remember to change pronouns and time references if necessary. Joe I've seen two crimes this week. On Monday, I saw a robbery in the shopping centre. Freya I heard about that on the news! Joe I was there. I took lots of photos of the robbers on phone.
Travel Writing: direct and indirect speech. Rewrite the following passage so that instead of direct speech (quotes) it includes indirect, or reported, speech. The first sentence has been done for you as an example. "These are what Alex used to drink," says Westerberg with a frown, swirling the ice in his White Russian. "He used to sit ...
G Rewrite these sentences in reported speech. 1. "I love travelling and exploring new places!" said Veronica. 2. "We will go to Nagaland next month," Sahil informed his cousins. 3. "I'll certainly get back by 5.00 p.m.," Swetha promised Rashmi. 4. "Shall I come to your house tomorrow?" Danial asked Deepak. 5. "We need to hurry up!" urged his ...
Final answer: Sentences in reported speech have been rewritten to reflect changes in pronoun, tense, and sometimes time and place, to fit the perspective of the person reporting the speech.. Explanation: To rewrite sentences in reported speech, you need to make sure that the tense, pronouns, and sometimes the time and place indicators are adjusted to fit the perspective of the report.