Reported or indirect speech: the essentials

reporting

You are advised to go through the guides on tenses, tense and aspect and modal auxiliary verbs before tackling this area.

Consider these pairs:

I was in London	He said he had been in London
I can help	She said she could help

On the left we have the direct speech – the words uttered. On the right we have reported or indirect speech – how the message is passed on.

On the face of it, there's nothing terribly difficult about this idea. The tense shifts back one (from, e.g., was to had been, from can to could. At the same time, I changes to he and so on. Here's a list of the changes in English.

Language item	Change
Present simple changes to past simple	I am in London He said he was in London
Past simple, present perfect and past perfect all come out as past perfect	I was in France She said she had been in France I have been to France She said she had been to France I had been to France She said she had been to France
Present progressive changes to past progressive	I am writing to him He said he was writing to him.
Future will changes to would	I'll go later He said he'd go later
Future will be + ing changes to would be + -ing	I'll be seeing him tomorrow She said she'd be seeing him tomorrow
Future will have + past participle changes to would have + past participle	I'll have done it He said he would have done it
Other changes
Pronouns change as appropriate	I / We / want to be there I / He / She / We / They said I / she / he / we / they wanted to be there
Time and place expressions change as appropriate	I like it here She said she liked it there I am going tomorrow He said he was going the next day
Modal verbs change to their past equivalents if there is one	I may see him He said he might see him I must go now He said he had to go then

Using common sense

Of course, not all changes are always appropriate (but using the changes will usually be correct).
If we are reporting something virtually simultaneously, then we often don't change the tense or time expressions. If we are reporting something in the same place, then we don't change the place expressions.

So we might get:
    A: I'm going there now.
    B: What did he say?
    C: He said he's going there now.

If an utterance remains true, we often don't change the tense so we get, e.g.,
I'm from South Africa = He said he's from South Africa
I love the countryside = She said she loves the countryside
and no changes are necessary because the fact remains true whenever and wherever it is reported.

Try this matching exercise.

Did you notice the changes, particularly with time and place expressions but also with the verb come (which changed to go)?

Teaching issues

There is nothing very difficult about the form of reported speech changes (providing a learner is already familiar with the tense forms of English). However:

Because of the common sense issues touched on above, you need to make sure that the language is very clearly set in a time-and-place context.
It is almost impossible to practise the form changes in class by getting students to report each others' utterances because time and place remain static. You need to spread the practice over time and place to be authentic.
You need to make sure that learners are aware of the common sense issues and don't slavishly transform every utterance.
Languages deal with the issues differently. Some, for example, reserve a subjunctive tense for reported speech and some hardly make any changes at all.

Related guides
reported or indirect speech	This is a more technical guide in the in-service area which repeats sections of the above but then it also considers reporting verbs and so on
tense and aspect	an essential guide to the distinctions
tenses	for a run-down of the main tenses in English
modal auxiliary verbs	for the essential guide to the characteristics of these special verbs