Reported (or indirect speech) is when we say what was said before.

You said that you loved Chris.

There are four things you need to remember to change.

1. The tense. If the events are now in the past, you need to change the verbs to the past forms.

present simple

changes to

past simple

present continuous

past continuous

present perfect

past perfect

will

would

shall

should

must

had to

can

could

is going to

was going to

2. The pronouns. Words like 'I' and 'his' and 'they' will all change, because the people speaking have changed.

3. Some time expressions. If the time has changed, words like 'yesterday' are meaningless. Instead, we say
the day/week before or the previous day/week
the following day/week or the next day/week

4. If the place has changed, "here" should change to "there".

	Created by leticia.pontones over 10 years ago

Rules and images for reported speech