DIRECT AND INDIRECT SPEECH

TENSE CHANGE
• When reporting speech the tense usually changes. This is because when we use reported speech, we are usually talking about a time in the past (because obviously the person who spoke originally spoke in the past). The verbs therefore usually have to be in the past too.
• Note : the reporting verbs that are usually used to report imperative sentence are :Tell , other command , ask , warn , remind



Present simple
Past tense
direct : Vita said “ I eat fried rice”
indirect :Vita said that she ate fried rice.

Past simple
Past perfect
direct : Mother said “ I went to market yesterday”
indirect : Mother said (that) she had gone to market the day before.

Future simple
Past future
direct : Dave said “ I will buy an i-pod next week’
indirect : Dave said (that) he would buy an i-pod the week after


Present continuous
Past continuous
direct : Gama said “ I’m playing football”
indirect : Gama said he was playing football

Past continuous
Past perfect continuous
direct : She said “ I was teaching earlier”
indirect : She said she had been teaching earlier

when we want to report what someone said , wedon’t usually repeat their exact words , we use our words , we can use reporting words such as tell say as follow by “that clause”

example :
my mother said that she got up at 4 o’clock