Usage of the Reported Speech

Direct speech	Reported speech	Example
Present Simple	Past Simple	"I want coffee," said Alice. ➝ Alice said she wanted coffee.
Present Continuous	Past Continuous	"We are working", they said. ➝ They said they were working.
Present Perfect Simple	Past Perfect Simple	"I've bought a present for Peter", said Amy. ➝ Amy said she had bought a present for Peter.
Present Perfect Continuous	Past Perfect Continuous	"I've been cleaning all day", said Mrs Smith. ➝ Mrs Smith said she had been cleaning all day.
Past Simple	Past Perfect Simple	"I called you yesterday", Tom said. ➝ Toms said he had called me the day before.
Past Continuous	Past Perfect Continuous	"I was sleeping while my sister was working", said Anna. ➝ Anna said she had been sleeping while her sister had been working.
Past Perfect Simple	Past Perfect Simple (no change)	"I had never seen a zebra before my trip to Africa", Max told us. ➝ Max told us he had never seen a zebra before his trip to Africa.
Past Perfect Continuous	Past Perfect Continuous (no change)	"I had been travelling for 14 hours when I finally arrived at the hotel", my brother told me. ➝ My brother told me he had been travelling for 14 hours before he had finally arrived at the hotel.
Be going to	Was/were going to	"I'm going to bake a pie", my mother said. ➝ My mother said she was going to bake a pie.
Will	Would	"I will take an IT course", Alice told Max. ➝ Alice told Max that she would take an IT course.
Can	Could	"We can meet on Friday", my friends told me. ➝ My friends told me we could meet on Friday.
Must/Have to	Had to	"You must/have to revise for the exam", Alice said. ➝ Alice told me I had to revise for the exam.
Imperative	Infinitive	"Clean your room! Don't eat the cake!" my mother told me. ➝ My mother told me to clean my room and not to eat the cake.

!!!! We do not need to make any changes to the verb tense if we are reporting a scientific fact or the information is still true or relevant.

"Not all birds can fly", our teacher told us. ➝ Our teacher told us that not all birds can fly. (scientific fact)

"I like my job", Alex said. ➝ Alex said that he likes his job. (Information is still relevant)

Usage of the Reported Speech

We use Reported Speech to say what someone else said.

Jason said he wanted to try some new things.

We told him he could come with us.

We use Reported Questions to say what someone else asked.

My brother asked me if he could borrow my computer for a bit.

I asked my teacher when the next lesson was going to be.

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