Indirect speech

Indirect Speech

When you tell a person what somebody else said some time ago, you need to use indirect speech.

Basic rule

When the reporting verb is in the past tense, you need to backshift the tense of the verb in the reported clause. You always need to change any adverbs of time and place.

Deeper explanation

When reporting something, you need to adapt the tense of your verb and the adverbs.

Tense

Example Tom: I don't want to wait anymore. Tom said that he didn't want to wait anymore.

You need to backshift the tenses. That does not express that the things happened really long ago, instead, it just expresses that the sentence is reported (In German: Tom sagte, dass er nicht mehr warten wolle.)

Original tense	Backshifted tense
simple present	simple past
present perfect	past perfect
simple past	past perfect
may, can, will write	might, could, would write

The same is true for the progressive forms.

Adverbs

Example Tom: I don't want to wait in this bar until tomorrow! Tom said he didn't want to wait in that bar until the next day.

Adverbs of place

this	that
here	there

Adverbs of time

today	that day
yesterday	the day before
tomorrow	the next day
this week	that week
last month	the month before

Important Terms

Reporting verb	The verb introducing the reported sentence: Tom said
Backshift	To change the tense one step to the past
adverbs of time	Words that describe when something happened: yesterday, tomorrow...
adverbs of place	Words that describe where something happened: there, this...