Reported speech

When you want to tell someone about something someone else has said, it can easily be confusing which tense to use and which words to change. Therefore, this blog entry shall give you advise how to use the reported speech correctly.

If the introductory verb is written in a present tense, you don't need to change the tense of the original sentence. However, you still have to change the possessive pronoun and the subject of the sentence:

Direct speech:      Claudia: "My boyfriend is cute."

Indirect speech:  She says (that) her boyfriend is cute.

Direct speech:      Tim: "Can I borrow your pencil?"

Indirect speech:   He asks if he can borrow my pencil.

Direct speech:       Sofia and Anika: "In our opinion it has been an interesting lesson."

Indirect speech:    They say (that) in their opinion it has been an interesting lesson.

If the introductory verb is written in a past tense (usually simple past), you need to use the so-called "backshift": The tense in the reported speech changes. You also have to change the possessive pronoun and the subject of the sentence.

Direct speech:       Yesterday Andreas said: "I really like my new game."

Indirect speech:   Yesterday Andreas said (that) he really liked his new game.

The backshift works as follows:

Examples:

Direct speech:        Berta: "You have done well on your project."

Indirect speech:    Berta told us (that) we had done well on our project.

Direct speech:        Melanie: "I will eat an ice cream after school!"

Indirect speech:    Melanie said (that) she would eat an ice cream after school.

Direct speech:        Alexander: "I was sick yesterday."

Indirect speech:    Alexander said (that) he had been sick the day before.

Direct speech:        Attila: "I love to sing my songs."

Indirect speech:    Attila said (that) he loved to sing his songs.

Direct speech:        Karolina: "I don't know when I'll be back."

Indirect speech:    Karolina said (that) she didn't know when she would be back.

When somebody says something that is always true, you don't have to use the backshift:

The professor says: "The earth turns around the sun"
Yesterday the professor said that the earth turns around the sun.

Sometimes people use adverbs that wouldn't fit if you just repeated them in the indirect sentence:

David: "I am here, and I will stay here!"

David said that he was there and that he would stay there.

Freddie: "I want it now!"

Freddie sang that he wanted it then.

As you can see, you will have to change these local and temporal adverbs as follows:

When someone has asked or ordered you to do something in the past, you'll have to rephrase the sentence if you want to tell someone else about it:

Sarah to Nki: "Could you lend me a pencil?"

Sarah asked Nki to lend her a pencil.

Teacher: "Do your homework in time!"

The teacher told us to do our homework in time.

Dean to Sam: "Please don't do this to me!"

Dean begged Sam not to do that to him.

Chrys: "Please inform the others."

Chrys asked me to inform the others.

With orders and wishes we use the construction tell/ask + object + infinitive (see "Infinitive and gerund" for more information on this construction).

Of course you can also talk about questions that someone has asked before. If there is a question word in the original question, use it as follows:

Rose to the doctor: "Who are you?"

Rose asked the doctor who he was.

A man to me: "Why don't you want to dance with me?"

A man asked me why I didn't want to dance with him.

Security guard to a man: "What are you doing here?"

The security guard asked the man what he was doing there.

If you want to talk about a question that doesn't have a question word in it, you can use the words "if" or "whether" in the indirect speech:

Andreas to me: "Do we still have bread?"

Andreas asked (me) if we still had bread.

Andreas asked (me) whether we still had bread.

I asked Mishra: "Did you see the shooting stars last night?"

I asked Mishra whether he had seen the shooting stars the night before.

I asked Mishra if he had seen the shooting stars the night before.