What Is Reported Speech?

Reported speech is when you tell somebody what you or another person said before. When reporting a speech, some changes are necessary.

For example, the statement:

• Yana said she was waiting for her mom.

is reported speech, whereas:

• Yana said "I'm waiting for my mom."

is direct speech.

Note:
Reported speech is also referred to as indirect speech or indirect discourse.

Reported Commands :

There is no backshift of tenses with commands/requests in Reported Speech.

You only have to change the person and shift expressions of time/place.

Form :

• affirmative commands → to + infinitive

• negative commands → not + to + infinitive

1.1. Affirmative commands

• Direct Speech → Dad: “Do your homework.”

• Reported Speech → Dad told me to do my homework.

  1.2. Negative commands

  • Direct Speech → Teacher: “Don't talk to your friend.”

  • Reported Speech → The teacher told me not to talk to my friend.

1.3. The introductory sentence in commands :

The word tell in introductory sentences in Reported Commands can be substituted with other words, e.g.

• advise

• ask

There is no backshift of tenses, no matter which tense is used in the introductory sentence.

Direct Speech :

• Dad: “Do your homework.”

Reported Speech :

• Dad tells me to do my homework.

• Dad told me to do my homework.

Conversion of expressions of time and place :

When using an expression of time/ place, remember to adjust it accordingly :

Additional information

In some cases backshift of tenses is not necessary, e.g. when statements are still true. Backshift of tenses is never wrong, though ! Crazy English !

• John: “My brother is at Moscow university.”

• John said (that) his brother was at Moscow university. or

• John said (that) his brother is at Moscow university.

or

when you use general statements.

• Yana : “The sun rises in the east.”

• Yana said (that) the sun rose in the east. or

• Yana said (that) the sun rises in the east.

* The word that is optional, that is the reason why we put it in brackets.