How do we form it – Reported statements

We introduce reported statements with ‘a reporting verb’ (like say or tell). If the verb is in the present tense, we just put ‘a reporting verb’ followed by a sentence. We may need to change the pronouns and possessive adjectives.

For example:

‘I don’t like hot weather,’ he says. –> He says (that) he doesn’t like hot weather.

If the reporting verb is in the past tense, we change the tenses in the reported speech (with a few exceptions – see later).

Remember to change:

1. The pronouns and possessive adjectives depending on the context
2. The tense
3. Adverbs of time and place

ad 2) We use a tense which is ‘more back’ in the past. This is called ‘backshift’.

• Present Simple —> Past Simple
• Present Continuous —> Past Continuous
• Present Perfect Simple & Past Simple —> Past Perfect Simple
• Present Perfect Continuous & Past Continuous —-> Past Perfect Continuous
• Past Perfect —>Past Perfect
• Will —> Would
• Can—-> Could
• May —>Might
• Should/would/might/ought to —> should/would/might/ought to
• Must —> Had to or mus