Reported Speech with Simplified Rules and Solved Worksheets

Get The Right Start to Making Zero Errors

Many learners dread the reported speech because they see it as a gamut of grammar rules, one more confusing than the other. This lesson will simplify it by starting with the right base- a snapshot revision of the pertinent tenses, without which confusion is bound to abound!

What is Reported Speech

Any time something that is said is being said back at a later time is called reported speech. Let’s see an example:

• If Ajay says, “I want to have a cold coffee.” there is more than one way to convey that to others.

You could say: Ajay said, “I want to have a cold coffee.”

Here you have repeated the entire dialogue as is, without changing by putting into inverted commas. This is called the “Direct Speech”. However in real life, we are more likely to not repeat verbatim- word-for-word, but we state as a sentence, such as:

• Ajay said (that)* he wanted to have a cold coffee.

This form of conveying what has been said, without using the actual dialogue but transposing the entire spoken content without abridging but rather making some vital conversions is the “Reported Speech” or the “Indirect Speech”.

Note*: In spoken form, we are less likely to use “that” though Indians are habituated to using ‘that‘ as the connector. However, with most native English users, dropping the ‘that’ is acceptable in writing as well.

Why Learn Reported Speech

Why is it necessary to learn about reported speech, you might wonder. Well, how many times have you heard, “What did he/she say?” Thousands of times? How many times have you said that? Perhaps, thousands of times again. Reported speech is a routine part of daily conversation. Therefore, it’s a must to grasp its rules and structures well, and practice to perfection.

Rules of Reported Speech

One look at the example above, and you can notice that there are multiple changes in the reported speech!

To avoid getting confused with the wide-ranging rules of the reported speech, let’s take a three-step route to mastering the them all.

• Step 1: Learn to Adjust Verb Tenses in Reported Speech
• Step 2: Learn the Rules on Pronoun Changes in Reported Speech
• Step 3: Learn the Rules for Modals, Time Frames, Places, etc.

These are the underlying base rules of the Reported Speech Conversions.

Step 1: Adjust Verb Tenses in Reported Speech

The flowchart below summarizes all the necessary tense forms along with showing the transformation chains between tenses. The image below gives you a Snapshot.

The most significant aspect to reported speech is that every time what is said is reconveyed, it takes one step further back into the past.

Why so? It is because when we convey something, i.e, report something, that something now belongs in the past, and, the reporter, i.e, the speaker is at a point in time after the words have been spoken. So if that speaks in the present tense, it gets reported in the past tense.

So also, if the speaker delivered something in the past tense, it gets reported in the past perfect tense and so on.

Reported Speech Examples

From the flowchart above, we can summarize the changes as follows, along with example sentences showing the ‘step back’ tense switches

Note 1: Why Do the Past Perfect Tenses Not Change

Since the furthest point into the past ends with the past perfect tense and the past perfect continuous tense, their tense forms do not change. There is no ‘step back’ possible! All other indirect speech rules apply normally though.

Note 2: Simple Present Doesn’t Always Become Simple Past

The simple present is generally used to talk about habits, rules, laws of nature, etc, which do not change with time. In such cases, it does not have to be transposed in to the simple past tense.

Example: “I love matar-paneer.“
You can say: She said (that) she loves matar-paneer.

This is because her liking for matar-paneer continues; it hasn’t stopped.
If it has stopped, you would be correct to say: She said that she loved matar-paneer.

Reported Speech Questions

Let’s look at an example question being conveyed in reported speech.

• Sujan: “How are you?”–> becomes –> Sujan asked me how I was.

Using ‘If/Whether/Whether or not” with Questions

With questions in reported speech, it is quite okay to bring in the manner of expression apart from the words.

For instance, “Samantha said, “Should I invite my ex-colleagues to the wedding?”“

Here, it is not so much a question, (so it is not about “said” being switched with “asked”!) as it is about Samantha wondering her course of action. Therefore, these forms of indirect speech are totally acceptable.

• Samantha wondered whether or not to invite her ex-colleagues.
• Samantha considered whether she should invite her ex-colleagues.
• Samantha pondered if she should invite her ex-colleagues.

Note 3: Why Do We Drop the Question Mark

You notice that the question sentence form is now a plain positive sentence. Remember that we only end a sentence with a question when the entire sentence is posing a question. Here, we are not posing any question in the reported speech, just restating the question. Hence, we drop the question mark and use a regular full stop.

Note 4: Use ‘Asked’, ‘Enquired’, not ‘Said’

In the example above, the word “asked” in “Sujan asked me how I was,” does the job of conveying that a question was asked rather than that a positive sentence was being made. ‘Said‘ is used for positive or negative sentences.

Step 2: Rules on Pronoun Changes

Tense switches are one big chunk about reported speech, closely followed by the subject and object, or pronoun switches.

The image below provides a complete summary of pronoun switches in the reported speech. Observe with attention.

Quick Recap of SVO: Subject-Verb-Object

As a help, let’s do a quick recap of what the subject, auxiliary and full verbs, and object in a sentence are.

• Subjects are the actors or the ones who perform the action word (full verbs) in the sentence.
• Words like am/are/is/was/were etc. which are not full verbs (auxiliaries), associate the subject with some state, quality (adjectives), etc.
• The object is the one receiving the action of the verb from the doer, i.e., the subject.

Let’s Tabulate Pronoun Switches

Just as in the image, this table gives a quick snapshot of how the pronouns change in reported speech.

Click the link to access exercises on Reported Speech with Pronouns

Demonstrative Pronouns in Reported Speech

The image above shows several adverbs of time as well as demonstrative pronouns. Let’s look at the two categories individually now.

In reported speech, demonstrative pronouns usually change to maintain the correct level of distance or proximity from the speaker and listener. So, “this” changes to “that” and “these” changes to “those” when shifting from direct to reported speech, to reflect a change in perspective or location.

Step 3: Rules for Modals, Time Frames, Places, etc.

We have seen both with tenses with past forms like past perfect, and the past perfect continuous, and with and demonstrative pronouns like ‘that‘ and ‘those‘ do not change.

Modal Verbs in Indirect Speech

Going by the same ‘step back’ principle, let’s outline the present and past forms of the most common modal verbs. While the present forms convert to the past forms, the past forms remain as is, as seen in the image above.

Modals like should and must do not have different past and present forms, and therefore, they remain the same in reported speech.

Adverbs of Time and Place in Indirect Speech

This image gives a snapshot of the adverbs of time and place and their reversals in reported speech.

Here is a summary of adverbs of time transpositions that we will practice in an exercise below. Click here to skip to the exercise.

Watch how these adverbs get transposed in reported speech sentences.

Examples of Adverbs in Reported Speech

Interjections in Reported Speech

Interjections are rather atypical compared to all the other forms of reported speech. Take a look at these ten examples. A bit of summarizing or paraphrasing is considered normal when you report exclamations unlike other speech. The underlined words represent how you can bring in your assessment of the remark.

Interjections: Direct Indirect Exercise

1.Direct Speech: “Wow! That’s amazing!”
Reported Speech: She exclaimed with admiration that it was amazing.

2. Direct Speech: “Oh no! I forgot my keys!”
Indirect Speech: He exclaimed with frustration that he had forgotten his keys.

3. Direct Speech: “Yikes! That’s a huge spider!”
Indirect Speech: She exclaimed with alarm that it was a huge spider.

4. Direct Speech: “Ouch! That hurt!”
Indirect Speech: He exclaimed with pain that it had hurt.

5. Direct Speech: “Hurray! We won the game!”
Indirect Speech: They exclaimed with joy that they had won the game.

Commands: Direct Indirect Exercise

1.Direct Speech: “Close the door, please.”
Reported Speech: She requested him to close the door. (instead of asked)

2. Direct Speech: “Stop talking and listen to me!”
Indirect Speech: He commanded them to stop talking and listen to him. (or, admonished)

3. Direct Speech: “Do your homework before dinner.”
Indirect Speech: She instructed him to do his homework before dinner. (or, suggested)

4. Direct Speech: “Be quiet during the movie.”
Indirect Speech: He scolded them to be quiet during the movie. (or, told)

5. Direct Speech: “Don’t touch that!”
Indirect Speech: She warned him not to touch that. (Or, cautioned)

These examples illustrate how interjections and commands are transformed when reported in speech.

Reported Speech Examples with Answers

Now that all the rules for reported speech have been thoroughly discussed, it is time to view a few more example that combine all the three steps in one go!

1.Rani: “I swim a lot here.”

1. Rani said that she swam a lot there (If she doesn’t swim there anymore). (OR) She said that she swims a lot here. (Especially, if you are standing right at that pool or if you know Rani still swims here.)
2. Rani: “He is getting late today.”
   Rani said that he was getting late that day.
3. Raju: “She has posted the mail already.”
   Raju said that she had posted the mail by then.
4. Raju and Ravi: “We have been waiting for the last hour.”
   Raju and Ravi said that they had been waiting since the previous hour.
5. Raju: “She lost her keys yesterday.”
   Raju said that she had lost her keys the day before.
6. Rani: “I am getting bored with this.”
   Rani said that she was getting bored with that.
7. Rani: “I had hosted a party.”
   Rani said that she had hosted a party. (No change.)
8. Rani: “They have been watching us.”
   Rani said that they had been watching them.

Direct Indirect Speech Worksheet

Convert the following into Indirect Speech:

A) Tenses and Adverbs

1. Samarth: “I had a great weekend!”
2. Ajay: “The movie was very confusing to her.”
3. Kumari: “I lost my favorite pen last week.”
4. Mother: “Shall we go to a restaurant tonight?”
5. Secretary: “The boss is here in the office now.”
6. Bhavana: “I will be there before 9 o’ clock.”
7. Uncle Ramesh: “We used to live here a long time ago.”
8. Father: “Son, leave this folder in my office today.”
9. The boss: “Hereafter, we will not cut salaries for leave due to medical emergencies.”
10. Sravanti: “I did not finish my homework.”
11. Kid: “Are you going to invite all of us?”

B) Interjections & Commands

12. Pavani: “Don’t ask them!”
13. Raman: “This book is hers.”
14. Teacher: “Sit quietly everyone!”
15. Doctor: “Do not miss your pills.”

Here are the answers to the exercises above.

A) Tenses and Adverbs Answers:

1. Samarth exclaimed that he had a great weekend.
2. Ajay said that the movie has been very confusing to her.
3. Kumari said that she had lost her favorite pen the previous week.
4. Mother suggested that they go a restaurant that night.
5. The secretary said that the boss was there in the office then.
6. Bhavana said that she would be there before 9 o’ clock.
7. Uncle Ramesh said that they used to live there a long time before.
8. The father asked his son to leave that folder in his office that day.
9. The boss announced that thereafter they would not salaries for leave due to medical emergencies.
10. Sravanti said that she had not finished her homework.
11. The kid asked if all of them would be invited.

B) Interjections & Commands Answers

12. Pavani suggested that we should not ask them.
13. Raman said that that book was hers.
14. The teacher commanded everyone to sit quietly.
15. The doctor cautioned against missing the pills.

Conclusion

This direct indirect worksheet brings this lesson to a close. However, keep your learning going with more related posts on past tense and the like. Check out these links!

Simple Past Tense: Structure, Rules and Examples
5 Simple Past Tense Worksheet Sets with Answer Keys
Verb Forms V1 V2 V3 to Master All Tenses Till V5

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