Reported speech: statements

Reported speech: statements

Do you know how to report what somebody else said? Test what you know with interactive exercises and read the explanation to help you.

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

Grammar B1-B2: Reported speech 1: 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

Grammar B1-B2: Reported speech 1: 2

Language level

Average: 4.1 (120 votes)
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Submitted by Stellaaa on Tue, 22/12/2020 - 01:27

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Hello Sir told us that if you want to know something just mention him,then he will answer us Is that correct?
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Submitted by Peter M. on Tue, 22/12/2020 - 09:20

In reply to by Stellaaa

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Hello Stellaaa,

That's almost correct. You should say 'mention it to him':

Sir told us that if you want to know something just mention it to him, and he will answer us.

Obviously, we can't see the context in which you are using this, but I think this is what you intend.

 

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Submitted by Timothy555 on Thu, 03/12/2020 - 13:08

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Hi! You mentioned that "The past perfect doesn't change". Is this referring to the past perfect simple tense? What about the past perfect continuous tense? Thanks!
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Submitted by Peter M. on Fri, 04/12/2020 - 08:06

In reply to by Timothy555

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Hi Tim,

This refers to both simple and continuous forms. If the original sentence (direct speech) contains a past perfect form, simple or continuous, it does not change when reported. 

 

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Submitted by Sebastian Parada on Tue, 24/11/2020 - 00:28

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I ran into these type of sentences. I'm trying to understand how I'd change them into Reported speech: "I like the new teacher, he is intelligent" do both parts of the sentence change into the past or just the first one? "Don't stop, we can win this race" Same question here

Hello Sebastian,

When direct speech is reported we can shift the verb form back in time to show that we are talking about the time of speaking, or we can leave the verb form as it is if the information is still true at the time of reporting. Thus we often have a choice.

Direct speech: "I like the new teacher, he is intelligent."

Reported speech 1: She said she liked the new teacher, he was intelligent.

Reported speech 2: She said she liked the new teacher, he is intelligent.

The first reported speech sentence tells us that at the time when she spoke to us, the teacher was intelligent. It does not tell us anything about the present. The teacher may have changed in some way, or may have died.

The second version tells us that the teacher was intelligent at the time she spoke to us, and is still intelligent today.

As intelligence is a characteristic which is considered inherent and unchanging for the most part, unless the teacher has died there is no reason not to use the second version, and it would clarify any ambiguities regarding whether or not the teacher is still with us. However, grammatically speaking, both versions are correct.

 

Imperatives are usually reported using tell with an infinitive. As the second clause is not an imperative a second reporting structure is required or a linker of some kind:

Direct speech: "Don't stop, we can win this race"

Reported speech 1: He told us not to stop because/as/since we could win the race.

Reported speech 2: He told us not to stop. He said we could win the race.

Reported speech 3: He told us not to stop because/as/since we can win the race.

Reported speech 2: He told us not to stop. He said we can win the race.

It seems highly unlikely that the speaker is reporting this during the race (though not impossible, of course), so versions 1 and 2 would be more likely. However, if the race were still ongoing (imagine two teammates talking during the race) then versions 3 and 4 would be possible.

 

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello Peter,

I'm in confusion regarding how the imperative sentence "Don't stop, we can win the race" has been reported. If these words are uttered by any third person speaker, shouldn't we then change the pronoun 'we' to 'they'? Like for instance-- He told us not to stop as they could win the race. But if it is said by first person figure, then the one mentioned in the above reply is correct. The reported version of the speech should be then--I told not to stop as we could win the race. If I haven't been able to get the context considering which you changed the speech, please do let clarify.

With regards
Sandeep Mandal

Hello smandal973,

It really depends on the details of the context. We could have a situation in which there are many people involved, such as in a team sport. Then it would be possible to have someone who is part of the team but who was not the speaker.

Team member 1: "Don't stop, we can win the race."
Team member 2: "What did he say?"
Team member 3: "He told us..."

I was actually thinking about a team coach giving instructions to a team, but you could imagine all sorts of contexts which would give rise to different pronoun choices.

Peter
The LearnEnglish Team

Submitted by Via on Mon, 19/10/2020 - 22:38

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Hello team, I noticed that "had" is used although there was only a single event. e.g, 'We played tennis for our school,' said Alina. e.g, Alina told me they'd played tennis for their school. Does it valid to use "had" even with single event? Thanks a lot, my appreciations.

Hi Via,

Well spotted, and it is correct! Actually, there are two past events. The second event is the act of speaking (Alina told me). The past perfect event (they'd played tennis) happened earlier than that act of speaking.

Best wishes,

Jonathan

The LearnEnglish Team