Reported Speech

Reported speech, also known as indirect speech, is used to report what someone else said.

It’s different from direct speech, which is when we repeat the exact words that someone else said.

In reported speech, we need to change the tense and pronouns to match the new speaker and the time of reporting. Here’s a table that summarizes the changes:

Direct Speech	Reported Speech	Example
Present Simple	Past Simple	“I like pizza,” said John.
		John said that he liked pizza.
Present Continuous	Past Continuous	“I am playing soccer,” said Emily.
		Emily said that she was playing soccer.
Present Perfect	Past Perfect	“I have visited France,” said Kate.
		Kate said that she had visited France.
Present Perfect Cont.	Past Perfect Continuous	“I have been studying Spanish,” said Tom.
		Tom said that he had been studying Spanish.
Past Simple	Past Perfect	“I went to the store,” said Sarah.
		Sarah said that she had gone to the store.
Past Continuous	Past Perfect Continuous	“I was watching TV,” said Mike.
		Mike said that he had been watching TV.
Past Perfect	Past Perfect	“I had finished my homework,” said Jane.
		Jane said that she had finished her homework.
Past Perfect Cont.	Past Perfect Continuous	“I had been studying for hours,” said Alex.
		Alex said that he had been studying for hours.
Future Simple	Conditional (would) + Infinitive	“I will come to the party,” said Peter.
		Peter said that he would come to the party.
Future Continuous	Conditional Continuous (would + be + Ving	“I will be working late,” said Mark.
		Mark said that he would be working late.
Future Perfect	Conditional Perfect (would + have + PP)	“I will have finished by then,” said Anna.
		Anna said that she would have finished by then.
Future Perfect Cont.	Conditional Perfect Cont. (would + have + been + Ving)	“I will have been studying for 4 hours,” said Sam.
Here/There	Changed according to the new location	“I live here,” said Lisa.
		Lisa said that she lived there.
Personal Pronouns	Changed according to the new speaker	“I love this song,” said Tim.
		Tim said that he loved that song.