Reported speech

REPORTED SPEECH

Part I - Introduction

To tell a person what somebody else said, we can quote their words literally —in a text they would appear between inverted commas—; this is direct speech. Here is an example:

My mother told me: 'Sit down, I have something to tell you'. However, we often use indirect speech, also called reported speech, and then we very often have to change quite a few things:

because she had

Typically, a sentence in reported speech begins with "He said / She told me ..." These two verbs are translated the same way; the difference between them is only a matter of grammar:

After "tell" we need a noun or a pronoun that refers to the indirect object (the person somebody was talking to); in contrast, we need not mention the direct object if it is already known:

After "say" we need the direct object, and the indirect object is not necessary; if we mention the Oi, it must be preceded by "to" (this is what always happens when the Oi appears after the Od):

IMPORTANT:

it is never necessary to use "that" after this introduction, so it is usually omitted. Besides, if the sentence is a question, in reported speech it typically begins with "They asked (me/you/etc.)...", and we must never use "that" after the verb "ask".

Part II — Changes in the present: pronouns and possessives

If the introductory verb (say, tell or ask, for example) is in the simple present, present perfect or future, then we only need to change a few words.

However, this is not very useful: we only use the introductory verb in these tenses in a limited number of situations: the present simple to talk about a person's usual opinions, the persent perfect when we are repeating what someone has just said, to someone who was not paying attention or did not hear it the first time, and has asked "What did he say?" (in Spanish: "¿Qué dice?"), and the future when we are predicting what someone will say.

In these cases, it is only necessary to change the personal pronouns and the possessives that refer to a different grammatical person in direct and reported speech:

Direct speech		Reported speech
I parked my car round this corner yesterday.		He has said he parked his car round this corner yesterday.

Normally, however, the introductory verb is in the past because we are repeating the information to someone who was not present at the time it was said. In this case we usually change three things: the verb tenses, the time expressions, and the deictics (words that can refer to different things or places depending on the situation where they are said: this, these, here).

Direct speech		Reported speech
I parked my car round this corner yesterday.		He said he had parked his car round that corner the day before.

Apart from SAY and TELL there are other common introductory verbs: declare, affirm, assure, claim, remark, mention, explain, repeat, insist, reply, admit, deny, exclaim, shout,...

Part III — Changes in the past: verb tenses

This is how verb tenses usually change in reported speech:

Direct speech		Reported speech
present		past
past		past perfect
future		conditional

That is to say, each tense changes to a "previous" tense in an imaginary time line:

Examples:

Direct speech		Reported speech
I play tennis.		He said he played tennis.
I visited Paris.		She said she had visited Paris.
They will help you.		They said they would help me.

Past perfect and conditional do not change — no tenses are previous to them. Examples:

Direct speech		Reported speech
I had gone to bed by twelve.		He said he had gone to bed by twelve.
I would like a beer.		He said he would like a beer.

Other tenses change according to the most similar one, so that for example present continuous becomes past continuous, present perfect becomes past perfect, and future perfect becomes perfect conditional:

Direct speech		Reported speech
I am reading a horror novel by Stephen King.		He said he was reading a novel by Stephen King.
I have finished the first chapter.		He said he had finished the first chapter.
I will have read it all by tomorrow.		He said he would have read it all by the following day.
I am going to write another example.		My teacher said he was going to write another example.

The "trick" to avoid having to learn a complete list of all the verbal tenses that change in reported speech is to look only at the first auxiliary:

If the auxiliary is in the present (e.g has been eaten), it changes to the past (had been eaten).
If it is in the past (e.g. was running), it changes into the past perfect (had been running)
If it is in the future (e.g. will have finished) it changes to conditional (would have finished).

We only have to remember that if the first auxiliary is "had" or "would" we need not change it, because it is already in the past perfect or the conditional. Of course, if there is no auxiliary it is because the sentence is in the simple present (it changes to the simple past) or in the simple past (it changes to the past perfect).

Part IV — Other changes: place & time expressions

Deictics are words whose meaning depends on the place where they are pronounced. There are three deictics that change in reported speech:

Direct speech	Reported speech
here	there
this	that
these	those

Time expressions usually change in reported speech, but it depends on how much time has passed since the original sentence was said:

Direct speech	Reported speech
now	then
at this moment / at the moment	at that moment / at the moment
today	that day
tonight	that night
yesterday	the previous day / the day before
yesterday morning / evening...	the previous morning / the morning before
last night	the previous night / the night before
last week / last month / last year /...	the previous week / the week before /...
the day before yesterday	two days before
ten minutes ago	ten minutes earlier / ten minutes before
three days ago	three days before
tomorrow	the following day / the day after / the next day
tomorrow morning	the following morning / the next morning
next Tuesday	the following Tuesday / the next Tuesday ¹
next week / next month /...	the following week / the next week /...
the day after tomorrow	two days later
in two weeks' time	two weeks later

¹ NB:

"Next Tuesday" means "el martes que viene", and it always refers to an immediate future:
We have an exam next Tuesday. → Tuesday next week — it is clear which Tuesday I mean.

"The next Tuesday" means "el martes siguiente", and it can refer to a remote future or past:
We met our tutor on the first day, and we had an exam the next Tuesday. =
= ...tuvimos un examen el martes siguiente.
→ last September, at the beginning of the school year
Our last lesson will be on the 10th of June, and we will have the final exam the next Tuesday. =
= ...tendremos el examen final el martes siguiente.
→ next June, at the end of the school year

Donald Trump's statements — a reported speech tutorial (class notes summary + exercise 1)

EXERCISE 2.
Write the sentences below in reported speech.
Imagine John and Mary were talking to you a week ago in their house.

TENSE		DIRECT SPEECH
1.- Present simple		John said: "We work in this room". [John said they worked in that room.]
2.- Present continuous		Mary told me: "I'm studying at this moment". [Mary told me she was studying at that moment / at the moment.]
3.- Future simple		John said: "I'll go with you tomorrow". [John said he would come with me the following day / the day after / the next day.]
4.- Conditional simple		Mary told me: "I'd like to be rich now". [Mary told me she would like to be rich then.]
5.- Perfect conditional		John said: "I'd never have done this without your help". [John said he would never have done that without my help.]
6.- Past simple		Mary told me: "I was ill yesterday". [Mary told me she had been ill the day before / the previous day.]
7.- Present perfect		John said: "I haven't read these books yet". [John said he hadn't read those books yet.]
8.- Past perfect		Mary told me: "I had already seen that film". [Mary told me she had already seen that film.]
9.- Past continuous		John said: "I was talking to Kevin on the phone yesterday". [John said he had been talking to Kevin on the phone the previous day / the day before.]
10.- Present perfect continuous		Mary told me: "I've been writing these letters all morning". [Mary told me she had been writing those letters all morning.]
11.- Past perfect continuous		John said: "I'd been talking to my brother the previous week." [John said he had been talking to his brother on the phone the previous day / the day before.]

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