Reported Speech

 

Indirect Speech / Reported Speech   

We often have to give information about what people say or think. In order to do this you can use direct or quoted speech, or indirect or reported speech.

If we report what another person has said, we usually do not use the speaker’s exact words (direct speech), but reported (indirect) speech. Therefore, you need to learn how to transform direct speech into reported speech.

Indirect speech (sometimes called reported speech), doesn't use quotation marks to enclose what the person said and it doesn't have to be word for word.

When reporting speech the tense usually changes. This is because when we use reported speech, we are usually talking about a time in the past (because obviously the person who spoke originally spoke in the past). The verbs therefore usually have to be in the past too.

For example:

Direct speech	Indirect speech
"I'm going to take your hat", he said.	He said he was going to take my hat .



Click here to complete the online activity.