Reported Speech (Indirect Speech)

We use Reported speech to report someone else’s words. For this to happen, we need some
reporting verbs in the Past Simple Tense, such as: said, told, answered, asked, agreed,
recommended, advised, etc
We also make some changes regarding the tense in the Direct Speech when we turn it into the
Reported Speech.
e.g. 1. “I play football at the weekend”. he said. – Direct Speech, present simple
He said (that) he played football at the weekend – Reported Speech, past simple
2. ‘’I saw her yesterday’’, he told me – Direct Speech, past simple
He told me (that) he had seen her the day before. – Reported Speech, past perfect simple

DIRECT SPEECH REPORTED SPEECH

Present simple Past simple

Present continuous Past continuous
Past simple Past perfect simple
Past continuous Past perfect continuous
Present perfect simple Past perfect simple
Present perfect continuous Past perfect continuous
Past perfect simple Past perfect simple
Past perfect continuous Past perfect continuous
will would
can could
have to had to
must had to
now then
today that day
tomorrow the next/following day
yesterday the day before/the previous day
this that
these those
next the following
ago before