Grammar: Reported Speech

1.Reported Speech

The first thing we need to know about Reported Speech is that we use a 'reporting verb' like 'say' or 'tell'. If this verb is in the present tense, it's easy. We just put 'she says' and then the sentence:  

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

But, if the reporting verb is in the past tense, then usually we change the tenses in the reported speech:

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

Here you can check the different changes that take place in the sentence depending on the original tense: 

Sometimes when we change direct speech into reported speech we have to change time expressions too. We don't always have to do this, however. It depends on when we heard the direct speech and when we say the reported speech. For example:
It's Monday. Julie says "I'm leaving today".
If I tell someone on Monday, I say "Julie said she was leaving today".
If I tell someone on Tuesday, I say "Julie said she was leaving yesterday".
If I tell someone on Wednesday, I say "Julie said she was leaving on Monday".
If I tell someone a month later, I say "Julie said she was leaving that day".

2.Reported Questions

How can we make the reported speech here?  "Where do you live"?
In fact, it's not so different from reported statements. The tense changes are the same, and we keep the question word. The very important thing though is that, once we tell the question to someone else, it isn't a question any more. So we need to change the grammar to a normal positive sentence. A bit confusing? Maybe this example will help:

• Direct speech: "Who are you?"
• Reported speech: She asked me who I was.

  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. 

 But, what if you need to report a 'yes / no' question? We don't have any question words to help us. Instead, we use 'if':

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

3.Reported Requests

What if someone asks you to do something (in a polite way)? 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 mean the same thing, so we don't need to report every word when we tell another person about it. We simply use 'ask me + to + infinitive':

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

4.Reported Orders

When someone tells you very directly to do something, We can say this is an 'order' in English. In fact, we make this into reported speech in the same way as a request. We just use 'tell' instead of 'ask':

• Direct speech: "Sit down!"
•  Reported speech: She told me to sit dow.

Reported Speech 1
Reported Speech 2

5.Excercises about Reported Speech: