reported speech questions past perfect

• B1-B2 grammar

Reported speech: questions

Do you know how to report a question that somebody asked? Test what you know with interactive exercises and read the explanation to help you.

Look at these examples to see how we can tell someone what another person asked.

direct speech: 'Do you work from home?' he said. indirect speech: He asked me if I worked from home. direct speech: 'Who did you see?' she asked. indirect speech: She asked me who I'd seen. direct speech: 'Could you write that down for me?' she asked. indirect speech: She asked me to write it down.

Try this exercise to test your grammar.

Grammar B1-B2: Reported speech 2: 1

Read the explanation to learn more.

Grammar explanation

A reported question is when we tell someone what another person asked. To do this, we can use direct speech or indirect speech.

direct speech: 'Do you like working in sales?' he asked. indirect speech: He asked me if I liked working in sales.

In indirect speech, we change the question structure (e.g. Do you like ) to a statement structure (e.g. I like ).

We also often make changes to the tenses and other words in the same way as for reported statements (e.g. have done → had done , today → that day ). You can learn about these changes on the Reported speech 1 – statements page.

Yes / no questions

In yes / no questions, we use if or whether to report the question. If is more common.

'Are you going to the Helsinki conference?' He asked me if I was going to the Helsinki conference. 'Have you finished the project yet?' She asked us whether we'd finished the project yet.

Questions with a question word

In what , where , why , who , when or how questions, we use the question word to report the question.

'What time does the train leave?' He asked me what time the train left. 'Where did he go?' She asked where he went.

Reporting verbs

The most common reporting verb for questions is ask , but we can also use verbs like enquire , want to know or wonder .

'Did you bring your passports?' She wanted to know if they'd brought their passports. 'When could you get this done by?' He wondered when we could get it done by.

Offers, requests and suggestions

If the question is making an offer, request or suggestion, we can use a specific verb pattern instead, for example offer + infinitive, ask + infinitive or suggest + ing.

'Would you like me to help you?' He offered to help me. 'Can you hold this for me, please?' She asked me to hold it. 'Why don't we check with Joel?' She suggested checking with Joel.

Do this exercise to test your grammar again.

Grammar B1-B2: Reported speech 2: 2

Language level

Hello, dear teachers and team!

Could you please help me with the following: 

• She asked me "Does the Earth turn around the Sun?"

  Does it have to be: "She asked me if the Earth TURNED around the Sun" ? 

Do we have to change the question into the past form here as well? 

2. She asked: "Was coffee originally green"?

Is "She asked me if the coffee HAD BEEN originally  green" correct option? Can I leave WAS in an inderect speech here? 

3. Is "She asked me if I knew if the Sun IS a star" or  "She asked me if I knew if the Sun WAS / HAD BEEN a star" (if any)  correct?  

I'm very very grateful for your precious help and thank you very much for your answering this post in advance!!! 

• Log in or register to post comments

Hello howtosay_.

1. She asked me "Does the Earth turn around the Sun?"  Does it have to be: "She asked me if the Earth TURNED around the Sun" ?

No, you can use the present here as well. The verb for this context would be 'go' rather than 'turn':

She asked me if the earth goes around the sun.

She asked me if the earth went around the sun.

Do we have to change the question into the past form here as well? 2. She asked: "Was coffee originally green"? Is "She asked me if the coffee HAD BEEN originally  green" correct option? Can I leave WAS in an inderect speech here?

You can use either 'had been' or 'was' here. The adverb 'originally' removes any ambiguity.

3. Is "She asked me if I knew if the Sun IS a star" or  "She asked me if I knew if the Sun WAS / HAD BEEN a star" (if any)  correct?

You can use 'is' or 'was' here but not 'had been' as that would suggest the sun is not a star any more.

The LearnEnglish Team

She offered me to encourage studying English. She asked us if we could give her a hand.

He said, "I wished she had gone."

How to change this sentence into indirect speech?

Hello bhutuljee,

'He said that he wished she had gone.'

Best wishes, Kirk LearnEnglish team

He said, "I wish she went."

How to change the above sentence into indirect speech?

Hi bhutuljee,

It would be: "He said that he wished she had gone."

LearnEnglish team

He said , "She wished John would succeed."

This is the third sentence you've asked us to transform in this way. While we try to offer as much help as we can, we are not a service for giving answers to questions which may be from tests or homework so we do limit these kinds of answers. Perhaps having read the information on the page above you can try to transform the sentence yourself and we will tell you if you have done it correctly or not.

Hi, I hope my comment finds you well and fine. 1- reported question of "where did he go?"

Isn't it: She asked where he had gone?

https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/grammar/b1-b2-grammar/reported-…

2- how can I report poilte questions with( can I, May I) For example: She asked me" Can I borrow some money?"

Your reply will be highly appreciated.

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Reported Speech Exercise 9

Perfect english grammar.

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• Download this quiz in PDF here
• More reported speech exercises here

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• Transcription

The past perfect: the past embedded in the past

If you have studied other languages, you may have found this tense referred to as the pluperfect and it sometimes called that in English grammar, too.  Here, however, we'll use the usual term for it, the past perfect.

The past perfect (like all perfect forms) is a relational rather than absolute time marker.  That means that the tense is used to link actions or states in relation to each other , not set them at a particular time.

The past perfect tense refers to the past in the past or the past before the past.  For example:

• She had visited France often before then
• She had met him before and knew his reputation.
• They had spent the afternoon skiing and were looking forward to a rest.

A simple time line can make it clearer:

In fact, as sentence 1 above indicates, the past perfect often occurs without the past simple.  For example,

• He had arrived before me.
• Before lunch they had played cards.

Note, however, that some other past event or state is always implied in these circumstances.  In sentence 4, that implication is that I also arrived and in sentence 5, there is a clear implication that they ate lunch after they played cards. In this way the past perfect stands in relation to the past in the same way that the present perfect stands in relation to the present. In both these tenses, the prior event is embedded in a following event and alters it in some way or even allows it to happen at all. So, for example, when we embed the past in the present, we might say:     The boss has arrived so now we can start the meeting and the use of the present perfect signals the fact that the meeting would not take place but for the boss' arrival. Equally, when we shift the events to the past, we get:     The boss had arrived so then we could start the meeting which also signals exactly the same relationship between the boss' arrival and the meeting's reality.

The simple form of the past perfect is not too difficult to grasp or to teach.  It works like this:

The continuous or progressive form of the present perfect is slightly more complex.  It works like this:

It is not the forms of the tense that are difficult to learn.  It is the concepts that are harder to grasp.

Two things (basically):

• To refer to the past within the past:     He had met the man before and recognised him     The horse had been raced hard and was exhausted etc.
• To distance the speaker from an event or state in the present:     I had hoped I would see you     I had meant to mention it

The tense is often conceptualised as referring to the time before the past rather than the past within the past.  Here we take the second, functional, view, that the tense serves to relate the past to another past and is the past set within the past rather than focusing on sequencing.

On the left are the simple past forms of the verbs ( expected, lost, finished ) and on the right the past perfect forms ( had expected, had lost, had finished ). What do you detect?  Click here when you have an answer .

There isn't much difference in meaning between sentences 1 and A or between sentences 3 and C and there are two different reasons for that:

• The nature of the verb expect .  Clearly, expecting precedes an even or state so we know which one came first.  The use of the past perfect here is, therefore, unnecessary (but allowable).
• The presence of the word after in sentences 3 and C also mean that the past perfect form is not needed.  The word tells us explicitly what came first.

However, in sentences 2 and B, there is a difference.  The causal effect of the conjunction because needs explaining so the hearer/reader knows which event occurred first.  Most people find sentence 2 unacceptable. This is what is meant by the past perfect referring to the past within rather than before the past.  We are aware of the sequencing but wish to focus on why an action was impossible.  In other words, we are showing the causal relationship between two past events, not simply their order.

The general rule is, therefore, that when the two events are spoken of in the order in which they occurred or with adverbials such as by then, before, up till then etc., we do not need to use the past perfect form.  So we get:     I went home and had dinner Here we have two events spoken of in the order they occurred so no past perfect tense is needed.     He lived for 20 years in France and then returned to England Here we have a state and an event a) spoken of in the order they occurred and b) containing a time adverb ( then ) so no past perfect form is needed.

The past perfect progressive and simple forms are different in exactly the same way that the present perfect progressive differs from the present perfect simple.  (See the guide to aspect and the guide to the present perfect for more, both linked below.)

In brief, the progressive form emphasises the activity itself rather than the outcome. Compare these and then click here for some comments :

• By the time I got there, she had succeeded in repairing the computer.
• By the time I got there she had been trying to repair the computer for hours.
• He had been gaining rapidly on the leader when the race finished.
• He had gained rapidly on the leader and finished second.
• In this sentence, the outcome (success) is emphasised.  We cannot say she had been succeeding because success implies an outcome.
• In this sentence, the trying is emphasised and the outcome is less important (in fact, there probably wasn't one).
• In this sentence, the focus is on the gaining not the outcome (again, the outcome was probably negative).
• In this, the outcome (he finished second) is emphasised.

If you have followed the guide to the present perfect, the following will be familiar although the examples differ of course.  The uses of the simple and progressive aspects of the past perfect closely parallel those for the present perfect simple and progressive.

We can use both tenses to refer to a past within the past so we can say either:     He had climbed the mountain or     He had been climbing the mountain but in the first we are emphasising his achievement (i.e., the outcome of his efforts) and in the second, the activity itself (i.e., the efforts themselves). Another example may make things clearer.

Similar examples can be used when the activity is what interests us, not any kind of achievement and it is the activity which serves to explain the past .  Here are three:     I had been running (and was hot and tired)     She had been drinking (and was not making sense)     What had you been doing? (to get so dirty, tired, wet etc .)

Semantic considerations

The term telicity is not something with which you should trouble learners but the concept is important to understand. The question to ask is whether an event or action is seen as finished (that is to say, perfective [not perfect]) or whether there is no end point in sight. The progressive form of the tense is used most frequently for events and actions which are seen as atelic, having no explicit finishing point and the simple aspect is used to refer to actions or events that are telic and, although finished, still refer to the past within the past. Both forms refer to the past within the past. For example:     I had read the book clearly implies that the action of reading was now finished but that the reading of the book is set in the past because it was relevant to our conversation in some way.     I had been reading the book on the other hand, means that the book was not finished.  It is still a past within the past in terms of relevance, of course. Compare, too, for example     She had been writing a letter but was unhappy with the wording in which the action was incomplete (atelic) and may have been resumed and     She had written a letter but was unhappy with the wording in which the action is complete (telic) but still with relevance to the second past event.

The past perfect tenses, both simple and progressive are described as having a perfect aspect and by that it is meant that the tenses refer in some way to the past within the past. This is true but the progressive form is also use to describe two other aspects which are not obvious by looking at the forms.

Using the past perfect progressive to distance oneself and sound tentative as in, e.g.,     I had been hoping you might help     I had meant to ask you ... makes the speaker sound very diffident and polite indeed.

Summary of progressive vs . simple tense uses

It makes sense, of course, to handle the distinctions piecemeal with learners rather than expecting them to absorb all this in a single sitting.

Briefly, the past perfect is often used when we report something said in the past tense after the time of speaking.  So, for example     "I bought it in London" is reported as     She said she had bought it in London. However, if the object in question lies before us, the past perfect is not necessary, so the reporting can be      She said she bought this in London in which the use of this clearly implies that the object is before us. If the direct speech is already in the past perfect, no changes can be made either to it or the following past simple form. Therefore:     "I had been running to catch the bus and was out of breath" will be reported as     She said she had been running for the bus and was out of breath not as:     *She said she had been running for the bus and had been out of breath See the guide to reported/indirect speech for more on this.

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Reported Speech: Rules, Examples, Exceptions

👉 Quiz 1 / Quiz 2

Advanced Grammar Course

What is reported speech?

“Reported speech” is when we talk about what somebody else said – for example:

• Direct Speech: “I’ve been to London three times.”
• Reported Speech: She said she’d been to London three times.

There are a lot of tricky little details to remember, but don’t worry, I’ll explain them and we’ll see lots of examples. The lesson will have three parts – we’ll start by looking at statements in reported speech, and then we’ll learn about some exceptions to the rules, and finally we’ll cover reported questions, requests, and commands.

So much of English grammar – like this topic, reported speech – can be confusing, hard to understand, and even harder to use correctly. I can help you learn grammar easily and use it confidently inside my Advanced English Grammar Course.

In this course, I will make even the most difficult parts of English grammar clear to you – and there are lots of opportunities for you to practice!

Backshift of Verb Tenses in Reported Speech

When we use reported speech, we often change the verb tense backwards in time. This can be called “backshift.”

Here are some examples in different verb tenses:

Reported Speech (Part 1) Quiz

Exceptions to backshift in reported speech.

Now that you know some of the reported speech rules about backshift, let’s learn some exceptions.

There are two situations in which we do NOT need to change the verb tense.

No backshift needed when the situation is still true

For example, if someone says “I have three children” (direct speech) then we would say “He said he has three children” because the situation continues to be true.

If I tell you “I live in the United States” (direct speech) then you could tell someone else “She said she lives in the United States” (that’s reported speech) because it is still true.

When the situation is still true, then we don’t need to backshift the verb.

He said he HAS three children

But when the situation is NOT still true, then we DO need to backshift the verb.

Imagine your friend says, “I have a headache.”

• If you immediately go and talk to another friend, you could say, “She said she has a headache,” because the situation is still true
• If you’re talking about that conversation a month after it happened, then you would say, “She said she had a headache,” because it’s no longer true.

No backshift needed when the situation is still in the future

We also don’t need to backshift to the verb when somebody said something about the future, and the event is still in the future.

Here’s an example:

• On Monday, my friend said, “I ‘ll call you on Friday .”
• “She said she ‘ll call me on Friday”, because Friday is still in the future from now.
• It is also possible to say, “She said she ‘d (she would) call me on Friday.”
• Both of them are correct, so the backshift in this case is optional.

Let’s look at a different situation:

• On Monday, my friend said, “I ‘ll call you on Tuesday .”
• “She said she ‘d  call me on Tuesday.” I must backshift because the event is NOT still in the future.

Review: Reported Speech, Backshift, & Exceptions

Quick review:

• Normally in reported speech we backshift the verb, we put it in a verb tense that’s a little bit further in the past.
• when the situation is still true
• when the situation is still in the future

Reported Requests, Orders, and Questions

Those were the rules for reported statements, just regular sentences.

What about reported speech for questions, requests, and orders?

For reported requests, we use “asked (someone) to do something”:

• “Please make a copy of this report.” (direct speech)
• She asked me to make a copy of the report. (reported speech)

For reported orders, we use “told (someone) to do something:”

• “Go to the bank.” (direct speech)
• “He told me to go to the bank.” (reported speech)

The main verb stays in the infinitive with “to”:

• She asked me to make a copy of the report. She asked me  make  a copy of the report.
• He told me to go to the bank. He told me  go  to the bank.

For yes/no questions, we use “asked if” and “wanted to know if” in reported speech.

• “Are you coming to the party?” (direct)
• He asked if I was coming to the party. (reported)
• “Did you turn off the TV?” (direct)
• She wanted to know if I had turned off the TV.” (reported)

The main verb changes and back shifts according to the rules and exceptions we learned earlier.

Notice that we don’t use do/does/did in the reported question:

• She wanted to know did I turn off the TV.
• She wanted to know if I had turned off the TV.

For other questions that are not yes/no questions, we use asked/wanted to know (without “if”):

• “When was the company founded?” (direct)
• She asked when the company was founded.” (reported)
• “What kind of car do you drive?” (direct)
• He wanted to know what kind of car I drive. (reported)

Again, notice that we don’t use do/does/did in reported questions:

• “Where does he work?”
• She wanted to know  where does he work.
• She wanted to know where he works.

Also, in questions with the verb “to be,” the word order changes in the reported question:

• “Where were you born?” ([to be] + subject)
• He asked where I was born. (subject + [to be])
• He asked where was I born.

Reported Speech (Part 2) Quiz

Learn more about reported speech:

• Reported speech: Perfect English Grammar
• Reported speech: BJYU’s

If you want to take your English grammar to the next level, then my Advanced English Grammar Course is for you! It will help you master the details of the English language, with clear explanations of essential grammar topics, and lots of practice. I hope to see you inside!

I’ve got one last little exercise for you, and that is to write sentences using reported speech. Think about a conversation you’ve had in the past, and write about it – let’s see you put this into practice right away.

Master the details of English grammar:

More Espresso English Lessons:

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Direct and Indirect of Past Perfect Tense

We talked about direct and indirect of past progressive tense , in the lesson below I am going to elaborate direct and indirect of past perfect tense. You will learn how to convey a message of someone from past perfect tense. Affirmative, negative, interrogative and negative interrogative sentences along with examples.

For direct and indirect speech complete rules click: Direct and indirect speech complete rules

Tense Change: As a rule, whenever we change a sentence from quoted speech into reported speech, we go one tense back. But if we have past perfect tense in direct speech, we use the same tense in indirect speech.

Affirmatives

• Direct speech: RP, +, + S + had + V3 + ROTS I said to him, “They had played cricket.”
• Indirect speech: RP + that + S + had + V3 + ROTS I told him that they had played cricket.
• Direct speech: RP +, + S + had not + V3 + ROTS He said to me, “We hadn’t played cricket.”
• Indirect speech: RP + that + S + had not + V3 + ROTS He told me that they hadn`t played cricket.

Interrogatives

• Direct speech: RP +, + had + S + V3 + ROTS He asked, “Had you finished playing cricket before the rain started?
• Indirect speech: RP + whether/if + S + had + V3 + ROTS He asked me whether/if we had finished playing cricket before the rain started.

Negative interrogatives

• Direct speech: RP +, + had not + S + V3 + ROTS He asked, “Hadn`t you finished playing cricket before the rain started?”
• Indirect speech: RP + if + S + had not + V3 + ROTS He asked me if we hadn’t finished playing cricket before the rain started.

WH/Information questions

• Direct speech: RP +, + WH + had + S + V3 + ROTS She asked, “Who had you played cricket with before the rain stared?”
• Indirect speech: RP + WH + had + S + V3 + ROTS She wanted to know who I had played cricket with before the rain started.

Check out Direct and Indirect Speech Exercises With Answers

If you would like to know more about direct or quoted speech, or indirect or reported speech, check out more in the book below.

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Reported speech - indirect speech

• English year 1
• English year 2
• English year 3
• English year 4
• You are learning...
• Reported Speech
• 01 Reported Speech rules
• 02 Pronouns change
• 03 Pronouns change
• 04 Change place and time
• 05 Simple Present
• 06 Introduction Simple Pres.
• 07 Backshift
• 08 Backshift Tenses
• 09 Simple Past negative
• 10 Simple Past negative
• 11 Questions
• 12 Questions
• 13 Past - Past Perfect
• 14 Past - Past Perfect
• 15 Past Perfect negative
• 16 Past Perfect negative
• 17 with-out question word
• 18 with-out question word
• 19 Perfect Past Perfect
• 20 Perfect - Past Perfect
• 21 Perfect - Past Perfect
• 22 Perfect - Past Perfect
• 23 Questions without qw.
• 24 Questions with qw.
• 25 will - would
• 26 Will-Future
• 27 Will-Future negative
• 28 Will-Future negatives
• 29 Will-Future Questions
• 30 Will-Future will - would
• 31 Commands
• 32 Commands Reported
• 33 Commands negative
• 34 Commands negative
• 35 Mixed exercises
• 37 Questions all tenses
• 38 Questions all tenses
• 39 Commands all tenses
• 40 Commands all tenses
• 41 all forms all tenses
• 42 all forms all tenses
• 43 Change place and time
• 44 Change place and time
• 45 Test Reported Speech
• English Tenses
• Simple Present Tense
• Simple past Tense
• Present perfect
• Past Perfect
• Simple Future
• Future Perfect
• Going-to-Future
• Continuous Tenses
• Present Continuous
• Past Continuous
• Present perfect Progr.
• Past Perfect Continuous
• Simple Future Continuous
• Future 2 Continuous
• Comparison of Tenses
• Passive exercises
• If clauses - Conditional

Reported speech question word

Questions - reported speech.

"Do you like Jake?" She asked me if/whether I liked Jake.

Questions with question words

Who is your friend? She asked me who my friend was .

English Reported speech exercises

Reported speech - indirect speech with free online exercises, Reported speech - indirect speech examples and sentences. Online exercises Reported speech - indirect speech, questions and negative sentences.

Online exercises English grammar and courses Free tutorial Reported speech - indirect speech with exercises. English grammar easy to learn.

EnglishPost.org

Past Perfect Sentences & Questions

Today we are going to learn how to make sentences with the past perfect following simple steps and checking lots of examples.

The past perfect is one the 12 tenses in English and it is used to describe an action that had already finished when another action happened.

• She had met him before the party
• The plane had left by the time I got to the airport.
• She stayed up all night because she had received bad news.
• My neighbor asked if we had seen her dog.

Continue reading so you can learn more about the uses and the type of sentences you can make with the past perfect tense

Table of Contents

Uses of the Past Perfect in English

Past perfect examples: affirmative sentences, past perfect examples: negative sentences, questions with the past perfect, past perfect examples: reported speech, past perfect examples: wish, past perfect pdf exercises .

It is made with “had” and a past participle. For example:

• I had rented a house
• I had called Maria from Human Resources

We often use the past perfect to refer to situations which have changed

• I had planned to go to the beach
• I had considered asking her out

These are examples of the Past Perfect Tense sentences

• No one told me that the shop  had closed .
• I had planned to go to the beach but look at the rain
• I washed the floor when the painter had gone
• They had completed the project.
• He had finished reading my book
• I had played this game several times.
• I had watched two seasons of Breaking Bad
• I had cooked something special for you
• She had spoken with him several times.
• He had forgotten what I said.
• She had told me what you said.
• I had seen that movie several times
• I had forgotten all my problems.
• I didn’t say anything until she had finished talking.
• She  had established  her company before 2008

These are examples negative sentences made with the past perfect simple:

As you already, making a negative sentences with the past perfect is really easy, you just have to add hadn’t where had was

These are some examples of negative sentences using the past perfect

• I hadn’t come here before last night
• I  had not   visited  the country twice before this trip.
• They  hadn’t complained  about this before
• I  had  never  seen  such a beautiful beach before I went to Conchal Beach
• I had not done anything illegal until today
• I had not studied Spanish until today
• He had not played soccer until last week
• He had not seen a tiger until he visited Africa

This is the structure that you use to make past perfect questions:

These are some examples of past perfect interrogative sentences

• Had I studied hard for exams?
• Had I gone to work every day?
• Had I slept late on Saturdays?
• Had you seen a movie?
• Had you prepared for the tes?
• Had they watched that horror movie?
• Had they sent the packages?
• Why had they not studied for the exams?

These are some questions and answers with the past perfect

• Had you surfed here before?
• I came last week, this is my second time
• Had you used this software before?
• Not until today
• Had you spoken to him before?
• We were in the same high school
• Had she seen a psychiatrist before?
• No, she didn’t think she needed one
• Where had the dog gone?
• It was under the beg sleeping all this time
• Had you visited Sri Lanka before this trip?
• A few times when I was a little kid

These are some examples of the sentences include the reported speech and the past perfect

• The teacher asked us if we had studied for the English test
• The teacher asked us if we had something illegal in our backpacks
• My classmate asked me if I had taken her pen
• My classmates asked me if I had already finished the homework

These are some examples of sentences that include the verb with and the past perfect

• I wished I had taken that job
• I wished I had bought that house when I had the chance
• I wished I had told her the truth
• I wished I had been a better friend

These are some PDF Exercises that will help

• Simple Past or Past Perfect Tense PDF
• Past Perfect or Past Perfect Progressive PDF

I am Jose Manuel, English professor and creator of EnglishPost.org, a blog whose mission is to share lessons for those who want to learn and improve their English

Related Posts

Questions with Why: Guide & Examples

Past Continuous Exercises: Collection

First Conditional Sentences and Questions

• English Grammar
• Reported Speech

Reported Speech - Definition, Rules and Usage with Examples

Reported speech or indirect speech is the form of speech used to convey what was said by someone at some point of time. This article will help you with all that you need to know about reported speech, its meaning, definition, how and when to use them along with examples. Furthermore, try out the practice questions given to check how far you have understood the topic.

Table of Contents

Definition of reported speech, rules to be followed when using reported speech, table 1 – change of pronouns, table 2 – change of adverbs of place and adverbs of time, table 3 – change of tense, table 4 – change of modal verbs, tips to practise reported speech, examples of reported speech, check your understanding of reported speech, frequently asked questions on reported speech in english, what is reported speech.

Reported speech is the form in which one can convey a message said by oneself or someone else, mostly in the past. It can also be said to be the third person view of what someone has said. In this form of speech, you need not use quotation marks as you are not quoting the exact words spoken by the speaker, but just conveying the message.

Now, take a look at the following dictionary definitions for a clearer idea of what it is.

Reported speech, according to the Oxford Learner’s Dictionary, is defined as “a report of what somebody has said that does not use their exact words.” The Collins Dictionary defines reported speech as “speech which tells you what someone said, but does not use the person’s actual words.” According to the Cambridge Dictionary, reported speech is defined as “the act of reporting something that was said, but not using exactly the same words.” The Macmillan Dictionary defines reported speech as “the words that you use to report what someone else has said.”

Reported speech is a little different from direct speech . As it has been discussed already, reported speech is used to tell what someone said and does not use the exact words of the speaker. Take a look at the following rules so that you can make use of reported speech effectively.

• The first thing you have to keep in mind is that you need not use any quotation marks as you are not using the exact words of the speaker.
• You can use the following formula to construct a sentence in the reported speech.
• You can use verbs like said, asked, requested, ordered, complained, exclaimed, screamed, told, etc. If you are just reporting a declarative sentence , you can use verbs like told, said, etc. followed by ‘that’ and end the sentence with a full stop . When you are reporting interrogative sentences, you can use the verbs – enquired, inquired, asked, etc. and remove the question mark . In case you are reporting imperative sentences , you can use verbs like requested, commanded, pleaded, ordered, etc. If you are reporting exclamatory sentences , you can use the verb exclaimed and remove the exclamation mark . Remember that the structure of the sentences also changes accordingly.
• Furthermore, keep in mind that the sentence structure , tense , pronouns , modal verbs , some specific adverbs of place and adverbs of time change when a sentence is transformed into indirect/reported speech.

Transforming Direct Speech into Reported Speech

As discussed earlier, when transforming a sentence from direct speech into reported speech, you will have to change the pronouns, tense and adverbs of time and place used by the speaker. Let us look at the following tables to see how they work.

Here are some tips you can follow to become a pro in using reported speech.

• Select a play, a drama or a short story with dialogues and try transforming the sentences in direct speech into reported speech.
• Write about an incident or speak about a day in your life using reported speech.
• Develop a story by following prompts or on your own using reported speech.

Given below are a few examples to show you how reported speech can be written. Check them out.

• Santana said that she would be auditioning for the lead role in Funny Girl.
• Blaine requested us to help him with the algebraic equations.
• Karishma asked me if I knew where her car keys were.
• The judges announced that the Warblers were the winners of the annual acapella competition.
• Binsha assured that she would reach Bangalore by 8 p.m.
• Kumar said that he had gone to the doctor the previous day.
• Lakshmi asked Teena if she would accompany her to the railway station.
• Jibin told me that he would help me out after lunch.
• The police ordered everyone to leave from the bus stop immediately.
• Rahul said that he was drawing a caricature.

Transform the following sentences into reported speech by making the necessary changes.

1. Rachel said, “I have an interview tomorrow.”

2. Mahesh said, “What is he doing?”

3. Sherly said, “My daughter is playing the lead role in the skit.”

4. Dinesh said, “It is a wonderful movie!”

5. Suresh said, “My son is getting married next month.”

6. Preetha said, “Can you please help me with the invitations?”

7. Anna said, “I look forward to meeting you.”

8. The teacher said, “Make sure you complete the homework before tomorrow.”

9. Sylvester said, “I am not going to cry anymore.”

10. Jade said, “My sister is moving to Los Angeles.”

Now, find out if you have answered all of them correctly.

1. Rachel said that she had an interview the next day.

2. Mahesh asked what he was doing.

3. Sherly said that her daughter was playing the lead role in the skit.

4. Dinesh exclaimed that it was a wonderful movie.

5. Suresh said that his son was getting married the following month.

6. Preetha asked if I could help her with the invitations.

7. Anna said that she looked forward to meeting me.

8. The teacher told us to make sure we completed the homework before the next day.

9. Sylvester said that he was not going to cry anymore.

10. Jade said that his sister was moving to Los Angeles.

What is reported speech?

What is the definition of reported speech.

Reported speech, according to the Oxford Learner’s Dictionary, is defined as “a report of what somebody has said that does not use their exact words.” The Collins Dictionary defines reported speech as “speech which tells you what someone said, but does not use the person’s actual words.” According to the Cambridge Dictionary, reported speech is defined as “the act of reporting something that was said, but not using exactly the same words.” The Macmillan Dictionary defines reported speech as “the words that you use to report what someone else has said.”

What is the formula of reported speech?

You can use the following formula to construct a sentence in the reported speech. Subject said that (report whatever the speaker said)

Give some examples of reported speech.

Given below are a few examples to show you how reported speech can be written.

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