Reported Speech (he said that …)

Study this example situation:

You saw Paul yesterday and you want to tell somebody
what he said.
There are two ways of doing this:

You can repeat Paul’s words (direct speech):
Paul said, ‘I’m feeling ill.’

Or you can use reported speech:
Paul said that he was feeling ill.

Compare:

direct            Paul said,          ‘I  am feeling ill.’ 

                                                      ↓   ↓

reported      Paul said that he was feeling ill.

 (In writing we use these quotation marks to show direct speech)

When we use reported speech, the main verb of the sentence is usually past (Paul said that … /
I told her that … etc.). The rest of the sentence is usually past too:

• Paul said that he was feeling ill.

• I told Lisa that I didn’t have any money.

You can leave out that. So you can say:

• Paul said that he was feeling ill. or Paul said he was feeling ill.

In general, the present in direct speech changes to the past in reported speech:

 am/is →was    do/does →did       will →would
 are →were      have/has →had    can →could
want/like/know/go etc. → wanted/liked/knew/went etc.

Compare direct and reported speech:

You met Anna.

Here are some of                                                                                        Later you tell somebody what Anna said.

the things she said in direct speech:                                                                        You use reported speech:

I’ve lost my phone	Anna said that she had lost her phone.
I want to buy a car	She said that she wanted to buy a car.
I can’t come to the party on                  Friday.	She said that she couldn’t come to         the party on Friday.
I don't have much free time.	She said that she didn't have much free time.
My parents are fine.	She said that her parents were fine.
I’m going away for a few days.	She said that she was going away for a   few days and would phone me when    she got back.
I’ll phone you when I get back.

The past simple (did/saw/knew etc.) can stay the same in reported speech, or you can change it to the
past perfect (had done / had seen / had known etc.):

direct	Paul said: ‘I woke up feeling ill, so I didn’t go to work.’
reported	Paul said (that) he woke up feeling ill, so he didn't go to work. or Paul said (that) he had woken up feeling ill, so he hadn't gone to work.

Try this exercise to test your grammar.

Language Level