Reported speech: statements
Look at these examples to see how we can tell someone what another person said.
direct speech: 'I love the Toy Story films,' she said.
indirect speech: She said she loved the Toy Story films.
direct speech: 'I worked as a waiter before becoming a chef,' he said.
indirect speech: He said he'd worked as a waiter before becoming a chef.
direct speech: 'I'll phone you tomorrow,' he said.
indirect speech: He said he'd phone me the next day.
Try this exercise to test your grammar.
- Grammar test 1
Read the explanation to learn more.
Grammar explanation
Reported speech is when we tell someone what another person said. To do this, we can use direct speech or indirect speech.
direct speech: 'I work in a bank,' said Daniel.
indirect speech: Daniel said that he worked in a bank.
In indirect speech, we often use a tense which is 'further back' in the past (e.g. worked) than the tense originally used (e.g. work). This is called 'backshift'. We also may need to change other words that were used, for example pronouns.
Present simple, present continuous and present perfect
When we backshift, present simple changes to past simple, present continuous changes to past continuous and present perfect changes to past perfect.
'I travel a lot in my job.'
- Jamila said that she travelled a lot in her job.
'The baby's sleeping!'
- He told me the baby was sleeping.
'I've hurt my leg.'
- She said she'd hurt her leg.
Past simple and past continuous
When we backshift, past simple usually changes to past perfect simple, and past continuous usually changes to past perfect continuous.
'We lived in China for five years.'
- She told me they'd lived in China for five years.
'It was raining all day.'
- He told me it had been raining all day.
Past perfect
The past perfect doesn't change.
'I'd tried everything without success, but this new medicine is great.'
- He said he'd tried everything without success, but the new medicine was great.
No backshift
If what the speaker has said is still true or relevant, it's not always necessary to change the tense. This might happen when the speaker has used a present tense.
'I go to the gym next to your house.'
- Jenny told me that she goes to the gym next to my house. I'm thinking about going with her.
'I'm working in Italy for the next six months.'
- He told me he's working in Italy for the next six months. Maybe I should visit him!
'I've broken my arm!'
- She said she's broken her arm, so she won't be at work this week.
Pronouns, demonstratives and adverbs of time and place
Pronouns also usually change in indirect speech.
'I enjoy working in my garden,' said Bob.
- Bob said that he enjoyed working in his garden.
'We played tennis for our school,' said Alina.
- Alina told me they'd played tennis for their school.
However, if you are the person or one of the people who spoke, then the pronouns don't change.
'I'm working on my thesis,' I said.
- I told her that I was working on my thesis.
'We want our jobs back!' we said.
- We said that we wanted our jobs back.
We also change demonstratives and adverbs of time and place if they are no longer accurate.
'This is my house.'
- He said this was his house. [You are currently in front of the house.]
- He said that was his house. [You are not currently in front of the house.]
'We like it here.'
- She told me they like it here. [You are currently in the place they like.]
- She told me they like it there. [You are not in the place they like.]
'I'm planning to do it today.'
- She told me she's planning to do it today. [It is currently still the same day.]
- She told me she was planning to do it that day. [It is not the same day any more.]
In the same way, these changes to those, now changes to then, yesterday changes to the day before, tomorrow changes to the next/following day and ago changes to before.
Do this exercise to test your grammar again.
- Grammar test 2
Hello,
I was wondering how do we deal with "Yes" and "No" in direct speech when converting to reported speech.
In one book, I read we need to change "yes" to "affirmed/replied affirmatively/replied in the affirmative" and for "no" it should be "declined/refused".
On the web, I see some sites saying "yes" and "no" can be ignored since the second of the sentence in direct speech will indicate the outcome.
In the below example, what should be the correct response in reported speech.
"Interviewer: Have you ever worked in a team environment?
Candidate: Yes, I led a group project during my internship.
The interviewer asked the candidate whether he had ever worked in a team environment to which the candidate replied ________."
Hello pottapitot,
There are a number of possibilities. The most common is to use a short answer:
Other verb forms are possible, of course (he did / he would / he could etc), as are negative forms (he hadn't / he didn't etc).
You can use different reporting verbs such as declined or refused but these will depend on the nature of the sentence (request, accusation etc) and so are more context-dependent.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Peter,
Thanks for your reply. Regarding the usage of "affirmed", when is it applicable? In this example if it is written, "The interviewer asked the candidate whether he had ever worked in a team environment to which the candidate replied affirmatively and said that he had led a group project during his internship."
Is this also considered correct or is it redundant?
Hello again pottapitot,
Yes, that's fine too but is quite formal. You could say any of these in a formal context:
...to which the candidate replied in the affirmative
...to which the candidate replied affirmatively
...which the candidate affirmed
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
he led a group during his internship
So I reckon you can just put there "affirmatively" and it should do the trick, am I right?
Hello Tombat,
Yes, you can - that's why I said in my answer 'that's fine'.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
𝐄𝐚𝐬𝐲 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐚𝐩: 𝐓𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐞 𝐒𝐡𝐢𝐟𝐭𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐑𝐞𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐒𝐩𝐞𝐞𝐜𝐡 (𝐁𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐟𝐭)
I believe that memorizing the rules for shifting verb tenses (Back-shift) in reported speech was quite difficult for me before!
But I've discovered a better and more effective method: the mind map. We'll start from the present tenses as the center (central hub), with the main anchor (destination) being the past continuous. In this way, when we begin with the present continuous, we maintain the forms of the other past verbs while focusing on the continuous tense as a connecting thread.
1-Present simple --> past simple --> past perfect simple (had+past participle)
2-Present continuous (Verb + ing) --->past continuous(was/were +ing)-->past perfect continuous (had been +past participle)
3-present perfect (have/has+past participle)-->past perfect simple
Hello. I would like to clarify something from these examples. I would like to know why the verb used here is 'was' and not 'is'? Does that mean the house isn't his property anymore?
'This is my house.'
Hence, in these examples the verb used 'like' is present tense. I would like to know what basis we should use to determine the tense of the verb. Thank you.
'We like it here.'
Hello Andrew06,
It's very common to use a past form in reported speech even if the situation we are describing is still true. The rules is this:
With your examples:
He said this is his house. [it was his house then and it still is his house now]
He said this was his house. [it was his house then and it may or may not still be his house now]
She told me they like it here. [they liked it then and they still like it now]
She told me they liked it here. [they liked it then and they may or may not like it now]
If the speaker wants to make it crystal clear that the situation is no longer true then they can use used to:
He said this used to be his house.
She told me they used to like it here.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team