Study materials
Somebody said one phrase to you. You report it to another person, and everything inside the sentence shifts.
"I am tired," she said.
She said she was tired.
Am became was, although the tiredness has not gone anywhere. This is not about time: the words now belong to the past moment when they were spoken. So everything inside them takes a step back.
A step back through the tenses
The shift is the same for every form. Each one moves one rung further into the past.
| Direct speech | Reported |
|---|---|
| Present Simple | Past Simple |
| Present Continuous | Past Continuous |
| Past Simple, Present Perfect | Past Perfect |
| will | would |
| can, may | could, might |
"I will call you." → He said he would call me.
"We have finished." → They said they had finished.
The forms would, could, might and should shift no further: there is no deeper rung.
More than the tense moves
Along with the verb, every word tied to the speaker and to the moment of speaking moves as well.
"I live here." → She said she lived there.
"I'll do it tomorrow." → He said he'd do it the next day.
"I bought this today." → She said she'd bought that that day.
The word that after said can be kept or dropped with no change of meaning: She said she was tired is as correct as She said that she was tired.
Say or tell
Both mean to say something, but they behave differently. Tell wants an addressee straight after it; say does not.
She said she was busy.
She told me she was busy.
She said to me she was busy.
When there is no shift
The step back is not compulsory. If what was said is still true, or if you are reporting something just heard, the form is often left as it was.
She said she lives in Lviv.
He says he is on his way.
This is not an exception but the speaker's choice. The shift shows distance; its absence shows that the words still hold now.
The mistakes everyone makes
The first is keeping the word order of direct speech.
She said I am tired. → She said she was tired.
The second is putting an addressee after say with no to.
He said me the news. → He told me the news.
The third is forgetting to shift will.
He said he will come. → He said he would come.
All three are caught by one question. Whose eyes am I looking through now: the speaker's or my own? If my own, everything inside the sentence has to adjust.
Try it right now
Recall three remarks you heard today and report them in English without quotation marks.
One condition: one of them must contain will, and another the word here or tomorrow. Watch what happens to them.