Think about your last phone call. Half of it was probably you passing on somebody else’s words: “Mum said the guests are coming at seven.” “The boss told me the meeting has moved.” We spend a huge part of our day reporting what other people said — and in English, that job has a name: reported speech.
Reported speech sounds like a heavy grammar topic, but it’s really just a small machine with three moving parts: a reporting verb (said, told, asked), a tense that steps one step back (teachers call this backshift), and a few little words — today, here, this — that change their clothes. Learn those three parts and the whole machine runs itself.
In this guide we’ll take the machine apart slowly, with everyday examples and a little practice at the end. And if tenses still feel shaky, our guide to English tenses is a friendly place to warm up first.
What Is Reported Speech?
There are two ways to pass on someone’s words. Direct speech repeats the exact words, inside quotation marks. Reported speech (also called indirect speech) tells the meaning in your own sentence — no quotation marks, and the grammar adjusts itself to your point of view.
Direct: Bilal said, “I am tired.”
Reported: Bilal said that he was tired.
Direct: Sara said, “I have finished my homework.”
Reported: Sara said that she had finished her homework.
Notice three things. The quotation marks disappear. The pronoun changes (I becomes he or she) because you’re now speaking about the person, not as the person. And the verb steps back in time: am → was, have finished → had finished.
One friendly detail: in statements, the word that after said or told is optional. “Bilal said he was tired” is perfectly correct — that is just a helpful signpost. The British Council’s reported speech lesson makes the same point, with interactive exercises if you want extra practice later.
The Backshift Table
When the reporting verb is in the past (said, told), the verbs inside the reported sentence usually step one step back into the past. Think of it as walking one step down a staircase. Here’s the whole staircase:
| Direct speech | Reported speech | Example |
|---|---|---|
| present simple | past simple | “I work in a bank.” → He said he worked in a bank. |
| present continuous | past continuous | “I am cooking dinner.” → She said she was cooking dinner. |
| present perfect | past perfect | “I have lost my keys.” → He said he had lost his keys. |
| past simple | past perfect (or stays past simple) | “I bought a bike.” → She said she had bought a bike. |
| will | would | “I will call you.” → He said he would call me. |
| can | could | “I can swim.” → She said she could swim. |
| must | had to | “I must go.” → He said he had to go. |
Two honest notes on this table. First, the past simple is allowed to stay put: “She said she bought a bike” is also fine, especially in relaxed speech — the past perfect simply makes the order of events extra clear. If you’re still building confidence with these forms, our guides to the past simple tense and the present perfect tense walk through them slowly.
Second — the golden exception. If what was said is still true now, you don’t have to backshift. “The teacher said the earth goes round the sun” keeps the present tense, because the earth hasn’t stopped. And if Ahmed says this morning, “I will bring the files tomorrow,” and tomorrow hasn’t arrived yet, you can report “Ahmed said he will bring the files tomorrow” — the promise is still alive. The Cambridge Dictionary grammar page on reported speech agrees: backshift is the safe default, not a prison.
Say or Tell?
These two little verbs cause more trouble than the whole backshift table. Here’s the simple split: say focuses on the words, and the listener is optional. Tell focuses on the listener — so the listener must be named, every single time.
“He said he was busy.” (listener not mentioned — fine)
“He said to me he was busy.” (listener added with to — also fine)
“He told me he was busy.” (tell + person — required)
Which means the world’s most common reported-speech slip is “He said me he was busy.” Said never takes a person directly like that. Hold on to that thought — we’ll meet this mistake again below.
Once said and told feel easy, give your reporting some flavour with other verbs: explained (“She explained that the train was late”), added (“He added that he was sorry”), promised (“She promised she would help”), and replied (“I asked the price, and he replied that it was fixed”).
Reported Questions
Questions change their shape when you report them. The word order becomes normal statement order — subject before verb — the question mark disappears, and asked does the reporting. Watch the moving parts:
Wh- questions keep their question word:
“Where do you live?” → She asked where I lived.
“Why are you late?” → The boss asked why I was late.
Yes/no questions borrow if or whether:
“Did you enjoy the film?” → He asked if I had enjoyed the film.
“Can you help me?” → She asked whether I could help her.
That word order is the real trap: it’s “She asked where I lived,” never “where was I.” The question itself is over — you’re just reporting it now, calmly, like a statement. If you’d like to hear questions flying around in real conversations, our everyday English dialogues are full of them.
Reported Commands and Requests
Orders and requests don’t use that-clauses at all. They use a neat little pattern: tell/ask + person + to + verb. For a negative order, slip not in front of the to.
The doctor said, “Take this tablet twice a day.” → The doctor told me to take this tablet twice a day.
“Don’t be late tomorrow,” my boss said. → My boss told us not to be late the next day.
“Please wash your hands,” Mum said. → Mum asked me to wash my hands.
The teacher said, “Open your books.” → The teacher told us to open our books.
Use told when it sounded like an order and asked when it sounded like a polite request — your ears usually know which one it was.
Little Words That Change
Time and place words are tied to the moment of speaking. When you report the words later — or somewhere else — those little words shift, so they still point at the right thing:
| Direct speech | Reported speech |
|---|---|
| today | that day |
| yesterday | the day before |
| tomorrow | the next day |
| here | there |
| this | that |
| now | then |
| (two days) ago | (two days) before |
One sentence wearing several changes at once: on Monday, he said, “I’ll finish this report here today.” → He said he would finish that report there that day. Three little words moved, and the meaning stayed exactly where it belonged.
5 Common Mistakes
1. ✗ He said me he was busy. → ✓ He told me he was busy. / He said he was busy.
Said can’t take a person directly, and told can’t survive without one. Pick the verb, then obey its rule.
2. ✗ He asked where was I going. → ✓ He asked where I was going.
Reported questions use statement word order: subject first, then verb. The question shape stays in the original words only.
3. ✗ The teacher said the earth went round the sun. (grammatical, but it sounds like the earth stopped!) → ✓ The teacher said the earth goes round the sun.
Both forms exist, but for facts that are still true, keeping the present tense is the safe, natural choice.
4. ✗ He told that he was tired. → ✓ He told me that he was tired. / He said that he was tired.
Told is lost without its person. If there’s no listener to name, switch to said.
5. ✗ She asked if I was hungry? → ✓ She asked if I was hungry.
A reported question is really a statement about a question, so it ends with a full stop — save the question mark for direct speech.
Quick Practice
Your turn. Report each sentence, then check the answers below — no peeking until all ten are done!
- “I am hungry,” said Ali.
- “We are watching a film,” they said.
- “I have never flown before,” she said.
- “I will help you,” he told me.
- “Can you swim?” she asked me.
- “Where is the station?” he asked.
- “Don’t touch that wire,” the electrician said to me.
- “I bought these shoes yesterday,” he said.
- “Please open the window,” she said to him.
- “I must leave now,” she said.
Answers
- Ali said (that) he was hungry. — Present simple steps back to past simple.
- They said (that) they were watching a film. — Present continuous → past continuous, and we becomes they.
- She said (that) she had never flown before. — Present perfect → past perfect.
- He told me (that) he would help me. — Will becomes would, and tell keeps its person.
- She asked me if I could swim. — A yes/no question borrows if, and can becomes could.
- He asked where the station was. — Statement word order: the station was, not was the station.
- The electrician told me not to touch that wire. — Negative order: not to + verb, and this becomes that.
- He said (that) he had bought those shoes the day before. — Three shifts at once: past perfect, these → those, yesterday → the day before.
- She asked him to open the window. — A polite request uses asked + person + to.
- She said (that) she had to leave then. — Must becomes had to, and now becomes then.
Frequently Asked Questions
Must I always backshift?
No. Backshift is the normal pattern when the reporting verb is in the past, but it’s optional when the words are still true or still current. “She said the shop closes at nine” is fine if the shop still closes at nine. In exams, backshift is the safest default — in real life, let the truth decide.
Should I say “that” or skip it?
Both are correct in reported statements, and in relaxed speech people skip that most of the time. Keep it when you’re writing formally, when the sentence is long, or in an exam — it makes your structure easier to follow and costs you nothing.
Is it true that “He says…” changes nothing?
Yes, completely true. When the reporting verb is in the present (says, tells, asks), there’s no backshift at all: “He says he’s busy.” “She says she’ll come at six.” You’ll see this all over the news — “The minister says the plan is working” — because reporters are passing on fresh words.
Where does reported speech show up in news and exams?
Everywhere in the news: journalists spend their day turning interviews into reports, so backshift, reported questions and reported commands are the machinery of every news page. Exams know this, which is why school tests and English exams love conversion questions — they’re testing exactly the skills in this guide.
How can I practise reported speech every day?
Play the two-minute phone-call game. After any call, tell a friend — or your notebook — three things the other person said, using said, told and asked. You can train the same muscle with our daily use English sentences: read one aloud, then report it as if a friend had just said it to you. Two minutes a day, and within a month the backshift starts happening on its own.
Now it’s your turn to use the machine. What’s one thing someone said to you today? Report it in the comments below — start with “My friend told me that…” — and let’s see those backshifts working.