Reported Speech

Reported Speech

Reported speech is used when the words of one speaker are passed on to another. Someone says, for example, "I'm going to Los Angeles tonight", and we later need to convey that to a third person.

How it works

A reporting verb such as 'say' or 'tell' is required. When that verb stands in the present tense, the sentence follows it unchanged, as in 'she says':

• Direct speech: I like ice cream.
• Reported speech: She says (that) she likes ice cream

No change of tense is needed, though the person will normally have to change, from 'I' to 'she' for instance. Possessives such as 'my' and 'your' may also require adjustment.

English generally allows 'that' to be included or omitted here. It appears in brackets below to mark it as optional. The two versions are equivalent.

When the reporting verb stands in the past tense, however, the tenses of the reported clause normally shift back:

• Direct speech: I like ice cream.
• Reported speech: She said (that) she liked ice cream

The present tense need not always shift back, provided the information in the direct speech still holds. This applies only to general facts, and even then the shift is usually preferred:

• Direct speech: The sky is blue.
• Reported speech: She said (that) the sky is/was blue

Reported questions

Affirmative and negative statements present no particular difficulty. Questions require closer attention.

• Direct speech: Where do you live?

How is this reported?

The procedure differs little from that for reported statements. The tense shifts are the same and the question word is retained. The essential point is that, once reported, the question is no longer a question, so the word order reverts to that of an ordinary affirmative sentence. The example below illustrates this:

• Direct speech: Where do you live?
• Reported speech: She asked me where I lived.

Do you see how it has been made? The direct question is in the present simple tense. We make a present simple question with 'do' or 'does' so I need to take that away. Then I need to change the verb to the past simple.

A further example:

• Direct speech: Where is Marina?
• Reported speech: She asked me where Marina was.

The direct question is the present simple of 'be'. We make the question form of the present simple of be by inverting (changing the position of)the subject and verb. So, we need to change them back before putting the verb into the past simple.

Further examples:

So much for 'wh' questions. A 'yes / no' question offers no question word to build on, and 'if' takes its place:

• Direct speech: Do you like chocolate?
• Reported speech: She asked me if I liked chocolate.

A few further examples:

Reported requests

A polite request is handled differently again. For example:

• Direct speech: Close the window, please
• Or: Could you close the window please?
• Or: Would you mind closing the window please?

All of these requests carry the same meaning, so the exact wording need not be reproduced when reporting them to someone else. The pattern 'ask me + to + infinitive' suffices:

• Reported speech: She asked me to close the window.

A few further examples:

A negative request takes 'not':

• Direct speech: Please don't be late.
• Reported speech: She asked us not to be late.

Reported orders

Where the request is less polite, English speaks of an order: a direct instruction to do something. For example:

• Direct speech: Sit down!

An order is reported exactly as a request is, except that 'tell' replaces 'ask':

• Reported speech: She told me to sit down.

Examples:

Reported time expressions

Converting direct speech into reported speech sometimes calls for a change of time expression as well, though not always. Everything depends on the interval between hearing the original words and reporting them. For example:

It's Monday. Marina says "I'm leaving today".

• If I tell someone on Monday, I say "Marina said she was leaving today".
• If I tell someone on Tuesday, I say "Marina said she was leaving yesterday".
• If I tell someone on Wednesday, I say "Marina said she was leaving on Monday".
• If I tell someone a month later, I say "Marina said she was leaving that day".

There is therefore no automatic conversion. The moment at which the original words were spoken has to be taken into account.

The table below sets out some possible conversions: