Reported Speech

In one line

Direct speech gives a speaker's words exactly, inside inverted commas; indirect or reported speech gives their substance in the reporter's words, with the tense, the person, and the words of time and place adjusted.

Direct: He said, "I am filing the appeal today."

Indirect: He said that he was filing the appeal that day.

The four changes

Every conversion involves these four, in this order.

One. The reporting verb and the conjunction. "Said to" becomes "told", and a conjunction is introduced: that for statements, if or whether for yes-or-no questions, to for commands and requests, and no conjunction for wh-questions, which keep their question word.

Two. The person of the pronouns. The first person changes according to the subject of the reporting verb; the second person according to its object; the third person does not change. Remembered as SOSO: Subject to Subject, Object to Object.

Direct: He said to me, "I have read your reply."

Indirect: He told me that he had read my reply.

Three. The tense. If the reporting verb is in the past, the reported verb goes one step back.

And the exception, which is the same as in the sequence of tenses. No change where the reported words are a universal truth, a statement of law still in force, or a habitual fact still true.

Direct: He said, "A minor's agreement is void."

Indirect: He said that a minor's agreement is void.

Direct: The teacher said, "The earth moves round the sun."

Indirect: The teacher said that the earth moves round the sun.

And no change at all if the reporting verb is in the present or the future. "He says, 'I am ready'" becomes "He says that he is ready".

Four. Words of time and place.

One caution. These changes are made only where the sense requires. If the report is made on the same day and in the same place, "today" and "here" may stand.

The five kinds of sentence

1. Assertive, or statements. Conjunction that; reporting verb said, told, replied, added, explained, admitted.

Direct: He said, "The reply has been filed."

Indirect: He said that the reply had been filed.

Direct: She said to him, "I do not agree."

Indirect: She told him that she did not agree.