Reported Speech Guidelines

Every time we use reported speech, what we are doing is we are reporting what someone
else said. Therefore, we do not use exactly the same words, although very close. When
we do reported speech, two main things change: 1) The verb, 2) the subject (in the
majority of the cases, the object pronouns.)
The verb:
Since we are reporting what someone else said, what it was said is part of the past. It is
not happening now because the person has already said it. Therefore, we need to change
the verb to its appropriate tense for the report, that is, one tense back. When we report a
question, this list of changes still applies.
Here you have a list of the verb changes:
Direct Speech Reported Speech
Present Simple Past Simple
Present Perfect Past Perfect
Present Continuous Past Continuous
Present Perfect Continuous Past Perfect Continuous
Past Simple Past Perfect
Past Continuous Past Perfect Continuous
Past Perfect Past Perfect
Past Perfect Continuous Past Perfect Continuous
Will Would
Be going to Was/were going to
Have to Had to
Can Could
May Might
Must Had to
Should Should

Reporting Commands:
A command is an order, the subject is always “you,” although it is never said. For
example: “Get up!” It is not necessary to say “you, get up!” because the person talking is
giving an order to the addressee and the addressee understands perfectly well that this
“get up!” is for him/her. So, in the reported speech, this command changes into infinitive:
“Mario told her to get up.” It is that easy.
The Subject and Pronouns:
If in a direct sentence we have this example: “I don’t want more sugar,” since another
person different from the original speaker is reporting it, this other person is not the same
subject than the one in the sentence, i.e. this person is not the I in the sentence. Hence, we
need to change that. The reported would be: She [let’s assume the I in the first sentence
is a “she”] said that she didn’t want more sugar.