reported speech

   1.Reported speech is used to report something said earlier. The most common reporting verbs are ‘say’, ‘tell’, ‘ask’,etc.When the reporting ver bis in the present, you don’t have to change the tense of the verb in the seond clause. However, when the reporting verb in the past, you bachshift the verb tense,i.e. you move the tenses in the sentence you report one step bach in time. Thus,

DIRECT SPEECH                                                                                       REPORTED SPEECH

PRESENT SIMPLE                                                                                     PAST SIMPLE ‘’ i am a nurse.’’he said                                                                               He said (that) he was a nurse. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ PRESENT CONTINUOUS                                                                      PAST CONTINUOUS ‘’i am working ‘’. he said                                                                             He told me he was working. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ PAST SIMPLE                                                                                          PAST PERFECT ‘’Ahmed ate his breakfast yesterday’’.                                                       He said that he had eaten his breakfast the day before. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ PRESENT PERFECT                                                                                  PAST PERFECT ‘’i’haven’t seen the movie yet’’                                                                   He said that he hadn’t seen the movie yet. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ PAST CONTINUOUS                                                                               PAST PERFECT CONTINUOUS ‘’He was driving a car.’’                                                                                He told me that he had been driving a car. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ‘’WILL’’ FUTURE                                                                                      ‘WOULD’ CONDITIONAL ‘’I’ll win that game’’. He told me.                                                                He told me that he would win that game. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ CAN                                                                                                              COULD ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ MAY                                                                                                             MIGHT ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ MUST                                                                                                           HAD TO

                                                                                                                                                               2. when you reporting questions, you bring the same changes to verb tenses. The most common reporting verbs ‘ask’, ‘want to know’, ‘wonder’,’ enquire’, etc.

 e.g.’’how long did you stay at that hotel’’? he asked me

         he wanted to know how long I had stayed at that hotel.

       ‘’Will it take  long to come back ?’’

      He asked her if it would take her long to come back.

   3. when reporting apologies, advice, warnings, suggestions, etc., it is preferable to use the verbs: apologized, advised, warned, suggested, etc.

 e.g.’’you ought to give up drinking.’’ He said.         He advised me to give up drinking.

        ‘’don’t tell anyone: otherwise...’’ She said.      She warned me not to tell anyone: otherwise…

  4.time and place words changes when reporting statements or questions: here are some changes that may have to be made :

now	then		here	there		tonight	That night
this	that		today	That day		tomorrow	The next day
these	those		yesterday	The day before		Next week	The following week