Reported Speech 101: Explanations and Examples of English Reported Speech

Examples of English reported speech are all around us. In fact, if you’ve spent much time conversing in English or watching English language shows or movies, you have almost certainly heard people using it. But what exactly is reported speech, and how do you use it?

With this guide, you’ll learn everything you need to know to understand how indirect speech works and put it into use, with step-by-step instructions and loads of examples to help you along the way.

We’ll cover the following topics:

• A simple reported speech definition
• The difference between direct and indirect speech
• The rules of reported speech in English grammar
• A step-by-step breakdown of how to turn direct speech into reported speech
• Reported speech examples and exercises to help you practice

Let’s start with just one example of reported speech to help you get started:

He said he liked cake.

In this case, the words ‘he said’ mean that this is reported speech.

Confused? Stick around and we’ll explain.

What is reported speech in English?

Reported speech, sometimes called indirect speech, is used to report something that was said earlier. So for example, if your boss tells you something, and you want to tell it to your coworker, you’ll need to use reported speech:

Your boss: “The meeting will start at one.” You (talking to a coworker): The boss said our meeting will start at one.

Reported speech shares what someone has said in an indirect way, so you often won’t use the exact same words when you report what someone said. We often change the verb tense and pronouns to reflect a difference in time, speaker, or both.

Let’s return to the example of reported speech from the beginning of this article:

Man: “I like cake.” You (speaking to a friend): He said he liked cake.

Here, the man says, “I like cake,” but when you tell your friend, you change it a little and say, “He said he liked cake.” Note the change in tense (like becomes liked) and pronoun (I becomes he) – these are common changes when using indirect speech.

Learn the difference: Direct and indirect speech

In essence, direct speech is someone’s exact words. It’s a quote or a piece of dialogue, and is often framed using quotation marks (“...”).

Indirect, or reported speech, is a layer removed from direct speech, meaning the speaker is talking about someone else’s speech that was said at another time. When we write indirect speech, we don’t use quotation marks, and the words may not be exactly the same as the original. In reported speech, the speaker is often paraphrasing and may even report an idea rather than what specifically was said.

Let’s look at some examples to clarify.

Direct speech

Both of the following are examples of direct speech:

“I am here.”

David said, “I am here.”

Indirect speech

To make these sentences into indirect speech, you could say:

David said he was here.

Indirect speech is altered by context. The above would be the best way to turn the sentence into reported speech if this happened in the past – he is no longer here, but at the time he spoke, he was here.

If you just got off the phone with David, and he is standing outside, you could also say:

David said he is here.

David spoke to you in the past (even though it was just a moment ago), so you use the past tense word said to reflect that. But he is still here now, so you use the present tense word is. This is typical of reported, or indirect, speech.

Let’s take a look at a few more examples. As you can see, there are many ways to use indirect speech, but what makes indirect speech unique is that a statement is being reported, rather than stated directly, to someone else.

English reported speech rules & grammar

Now that we know the difference between direct and indirect (or reported) speech, let's take a closer look at how exactly it works by breaking it down piece by piece.

Parts of speech that change in reported speech

Tense

Tense is frequently changed when moving from direct to indirect speech. Indirect speech is never delivered at the exact moment the speech occurs, so all indirect speech will involve some time shift. The most common time shift is from present to past. This is called ‘backshifting.’

In general, backshifting works like this:

• Simple present becomes simple past.
• Present continuous becomes past continuous.
• Simple past becomes past perfect.
• Present perfect becomes past perfect.

The table below shows these shifts in action.

Reported speech can also involve the present or future. For example, if there is a party and someone tells you, “I will be there,” you could report it by saying, “He said that he will be there” if the party is still in the future, or “He said that he would be here” if the party is happening now.

Pronouns

Pronouns also frequently change in the switch from direct to indirect speech. Anytime someone is referring to something another person said, they will use the appropriate pronouns (or proper nouns) to refer to the original speaker.

For example:

“I ate your onion rings.”

Could become…

Alex said he ate my onion rings.

The only exception is when you are referring to something you yourself said or did. Then, ‘I’ stays as ‘I.’

For example:

“I want my onion rings.”

Could become…

I said I wanted my onion rings.

In this case, words are added that make it indirect speech, but the pronouns stay the same.

Reporting verbs

We also use certain verbs to create reported speech. These are called ‘reporting verbs.’

Reporting verbs can be used to introduce reported speech or other reported information. There are many, many reporting verbs in English (at least 200!), but some are more common than others.

Here’s a list of 15 of the most widely used reporting verbs for indirect speech:

• Said
• Told
• Asked
• Replied
• Mentioned
• Responded
• Agreed
• Claimed
• Promised
• Explained
• Noted
• Found
• Felt
• Answered
• Shared

It’s also common to summarize what was said in a way that’s a bit abstracted from the original speech with phrases like ‘wanted to know if…’ This is most useful when the original speech used the verb ‘to be.’

For example:

“Are you going to the office holiday party?”

Could become…

He asked whether I was going to the office holiday party.

He wanted to know if I was going to the office holiday party.

Types of Reported Speech

As you may have noticed, reported speech has many different uses and can be used to report different types of sentences, including questions, requests and commands. These can be a little tricky at first glance, but they’re simple once you know the rules.

Questions

When turning a question into reported speech, the word order becomes the word order of a statement, so the subject comes before the verb.

The punctuation may also change. If the new sentence is a statement, it will end in a period, even if the speech being reported was a question. If the new sentence is a question, it should end in a question mark.

Here’s how that looks:

Direct speech, statement

“He is coming.”

Direct speech, question

“Is he coming?”

Indirect speech, statement

I asked if he was coming.

Indirect speech, question

Did you ask if he was coming?

Did you notice the word ‘if’? If you want to change a ‘yes or no’ question into reported speech, you can use the words ‘if,’ ‘whether,’ or ‘whether or not’ to introduce the next clause.

Requests

Requests for action or permission can be turned into reported speech in two ways:

1. Using a noun clause starting with ‘if’
2. Using the infinitive with ‘to’

Direct speech, request

“Could you go to the grocery store?”

Indirect speech, request

He asked if I could go to the grocery store. He asked me to go to the grocery store.

Commands

Commands can similarly be turned into reported speech in two ways:

1. A noun clause with a modal (usually ‘should’)
2. An infinitive

Direct speech, command

“Call the doctor.”

Indirect speech, command

She said that I should call the doctor. She told me to call the doctor.

Pro tip: ‘That’ in indirect speech

The word ‘that’ is optional but correct in standard reported speech. Any reported speech can use ‘that’ before the pronoun, except in the case of questions, requests and commands where it would have to precede ‘if,’ ‘whether,’ ‘whether or not,’ or the infinitive.

All of the following examples of indirect speech are correct:

She said she baked bread daily. She said that she baked bread daily.

He said he was going to the barber. He said that he was going to the barber.

They told us they had eaten. They told us that they had eaten.

She said I should call the doctor. She said that I should call the doctor.

However, you can not add ‘that’ to sentences like these:

She told me to call the doctor. (‘That’ can’t go before the infinitive ‘to call.’) He asked if I could go to the grocery store. (‘That’ can’t go before the word ‘if.’)

Step by Step: How to change direct speech to reported speech

To go from direct speech to indirect speech, here’s what you need to do, broken down into simple steps:

1. Turn any questions into statements.
2. Identify who is speaking.
3. Choose a reporting verb.
4. Determine if anything special is needed to link to the original speech (for example, ‘if,’ ‘whether,’ an infinitive, and so on).
5. Decide whether or not you want to use ‘that,’ if appropriate.
6. Change any pronouns to match with the original and new speaker.
7. Identify any shifts in time and change the verb form as needed.

Sound like a lot? Let’s look at what this means in action.

Let’s say Dave told Penelope he loves strawberries, and now she wants to tell the whole office, who are deciding what snack to get on Dave’s birthday.

Dave’s direct speech was: “I love strawberries.”

How can Penelope turn “I love strawberries” into indirect speech?

1. Turn any questions into statements.

This isn’t a question, so we can proceed.

2. Identify who is speaking.

Dave said it, and now Penelope is talking. She’ll need to say that Dave said it. She could simply use the pronoun ‘he’ if it made sense in context, but in this case, she wants to make sure people know she’s talking about Dave.

She adds the word ‘Dave’ to make this clear:

Dave I love strawberries.

3. Choose a reporting verb.

Let’s use ‘said,’ probably the most commonly used reporting verb.

So far, we have:

Dave said I love strawberries.

4. Determine if anything special is needed.

“I love strawberries” isn’t a command, question or request, so there’s nothing to worry about here.

Decide whether or not to use ‘that.’

Sure, why not?

Dave said that I love strawberries.

Well, that’s not quite right. Let’s keep going.

6. Change any pronouns to match with the original and new speaker.

Dave said that he love strawberries.

7. Identify any shifts in time and change the verb form as needed.

Dave still loves strawberries, so we just need to make the verb match ‘he’:

Dave said that he loves strawberries.

And that’s a perfect example of indirect speech!

Let’s try that again with a question. Let’s say that, a few weeks ago, Lisa asked the grocery store worker, “Do you have lemons?” The grocery store worker just remembered to tell the grocery store owner about the question.

Direct speech:

“Do you have lemons?”

Indirect speech:

Lisa asked whether we had lemons.

Process broken down step-by-step:

Make it a statement: Do you have lemons.?

Determine the subject: Lisa you have lemons.

Choose a reporting verb: Lisa asked you have lemons.

Add special linking word: Lisa asked whether you have lemons.

Adjust remaining pronouns: Lisa asked whether we have lemons.

Check verb tense & agreement: Lisa asked whether we had lemons.

Practice reported speech: Examples & exercises

Just to get a feel for indirect speech, here are a bunch more correct examples of reported speech.

Direct speech exercises

Now it’s your turn! Try these two exercises to practice using reported speech.

1. Josh’s direct speech to Rebecca was, “I want ramen tonight.” Rebecca wants to tell the group chat Josh’s food preference. How could she tell them?

2. Last week, Arnold said to Jane, “There’s an ice cream truck outside.” It’s not there now, but Jane wants to remind Arnold that he told her there was one then. What could Jane say to Arnold?

Here are some possible answers:

1. Josh says he wants ramen tonight. Josh said he wanted ramen tonight.

2. You said there was an ice cream truck outside last week. You told me there was an ice cream truck outside.

Now, make up your own scenarios! Turn these direct speech examples into the indirect speech of your choice. Try forming a question using indirect speech and playing with different tenses.

“I love hot chocolate.”
“He can’t eat dairy.”
“We have plans on Thursday.”
“Do you sell cabbages?”
“Will Pete be at the party?”
“Do you have any recommendations?”

Ready to use reported speech in English?

We’ve covered the definition of reported speech, the difference between direct and indirect speech, rules for using reported speech in English, steps to help you turn direct speech into reported speech, and examples and exercises to help familiarize you with indirect speech and how it works. You’re well on your way to being an English reported speech whiz!

This is such a handy grammatical structure for communicating in English, so it’s worth spending time to learn and master. Keep practicing and soon you’ll be using indirect speech like it’s second nature!