March 2026 · Grammar
Reported speech (indirect speech) is essential for everyday communication — telling someone what another person said, reporting news, passing on messages. Yet it involves multiple simultaneous changes (tense, pronouns, time expressions) that overwhelm many students. A systematic, step-by-step approach makes this manageable.
| Direct Speech | Reported Speech | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Present Simple | Past Simple | "I like coffee" → He said he liked coffee |
| Present Continuous | Past Continuous | "I'm working" → She said she was working |
| Past Simple | Past Perfect | "I went home" → He said he had gone home |
| Present Perfect | Past Perfect | "I've finished" → She said she had finished |
| Will | Would | "I'll help" → He said he would help |
| Can | Could | "I can swim" → She said she could swim |
| Direct | Reported |
|---|---|
| today | that day |
| tomorrow | the next day / the following day |
| yesterday | the day before / the previous day |
| here | there |
| this | that |
| now | then / at that time |
| Verb | Pattern | Example |
|---|---|---|
| suggest | suggest + -ing / suggest that | He suggested going to the cinema. |
| advise | advise + object + to | She advised me to study harder. |
| promise | promise + to | He promised to call me back. |
| warn | warn + object + (not) to | She warned us not to go there. |
| deny | deny + -ing | He denied stealing the money. |
| admit | admit + -ing / admit that | She admitted making a mistake. |
Student A tells Student B something. Student B reports it to Student C: "Maria said that she was going on holiday next week." C reports to D, and so on. Compare the final version with the original.
Give students direct quotes from interviews. They rewrite them as reported speech for a news article. This is authentic and naturally requires reported speech.
"Tell Student B that I can't come to class tomorrow because I have a dentist appointment." Student B relays: "The teacher said she couldn't come to class the next day because she had a dentist appointment."
| Error | Correction |
|---|---|
| *He said me that... | He told me that... / He said that... |
| *She asked did I like it. | She asked if I liked it. |
| *He said that he will come. | He said that he would come. |
Not always. If the information is still true, backshift is optional: "She said she likes / liked coffee." However, for exams (Cambridge, IELTS), always backshift. Teach the rule first, then introduce the exception for advanced students.
"Say" doesn't need an object: "He said that..." "Tell" requires a person object: "He told me that..." This is one of the most common errors — drill it explicitly.
Use gossip games, message relays, interview-and-report activities, and retelling conversations from movies or TV shows. The key is creating a genuine information gap where reporting is necessary, not just mechanical transformation.