Rule one
When the main verb is in the present tense, the future or present perfect:
We can report without any change of tense.
Eg: Paul says: “I am trying to get a taxi.”
⟼ Paul says that he is trying to get taxi.
Rule two
When the main verb is in the past
We have to change the tense of the verbs used in the statement.
Present simple: “I play football”.
To Simple Past: He said that he played football
Past simple: “I played football”.
To Past Perfect: He said that he had played football
Present Perfect: “I have played football”.
To Past Perfect: He said that he had played football
Present Continuous: “I am playing football”.
To Past Continuous: He said that he was playing football
Past Continuous: “I was playing football”.
To Past perfect continuous: He said that he had been playing football.
Past Perfect: “I had played football”.
To Past Perfect: He said that he had played football.
Present perfect continuous: “I have been playing football.”
To Past perfect continuous: He said that he had been playing
Other changes
Modals
Direct
- Will
- Can
- Must
- May
- Should
- Ought to
Reported
- Would
- Could
- Had to
- Might
- Should
- Ought to
Time and place reference
Direct
- Now.
- Today.
- Tonight.
- Here.
- This.
- These.
- This week.
- Tomorrow.
- Tomorrow.
- Next week.
- Next week.
- Yesterday.
- Yesterday.
- Last week.
- Last week.
- 2 week ago.
Reported
- Then.
- That day.
- That night.
- There.
- That.
- Those.
- That week.
- The day after.
- The next (following) day.
- The week after.
- The following week.
- The day before.
- The previous day.
- The week before.
- The previous week.
- 2 week before.
Reporting question
When we report a question we use: asked, questioned, wanted to know.
There is no question mark “?”
- “Wh” question
“Wh” question are reported with the question word.
The verb has the form of normal statement.
Note: we do not use: do, does, did in the reported.
Eg: “Where are you going?”
⟼ I asked her where she was going.