B1 Intermediate Conditionals and reported speech
Reported speech — statements
Lesson goal. After this lesson you can report what someone said, making all three changes: tense back-shift, pronouns, and time and place words.
When to use it
- Relaying what someone said: She said she was tired.
- Rewriting information from a reading or listening text.
- A very common sentence transformation task in exams.
Form
| Direct | Reported | Note |
|---|---|---|
| present simple: live | past simple: lived | |
| present continuous: am living | past continuous: was living | |
| past simple: saw | past perfect: had seen | |
| present perfect: have seen | past perfect: had seen | |
| will | would | can → could · may → might |
| must | had to |
Step by step
- Remove the quotation marks and add that (optional).
- Shift the tense one step back.
- Change the pronouns to fit the reporter: I → he/she, my → his/her.
- Change time and place words: now → then, today → that day, here → there.
Time and place words
| Direct | Reported | Direct | Reported |
|---|---|---|---|
| now | then | today | that day |
| tomorrow | the next day | yesterday | the day before |
| here | there | this | that |
| last week | the week before | next week | the following week |
Examples
“I am tired,” she said. → She said she was tired.
“I will call you,” he said. → He said he would call me.
“We have moved house.” → They said they had moved house.
“I can drive,” my sister said. → My sister said she could drive.
“I saw her yesterday.” → He said he had seen her the day before.
“I don't like coffee,” she said. → She said she didn't like coffee.
Common mistakes
She said she is very tired. → She said she was very tired.
The reporting verb said is past, so the verb after it must shift back. Vietnamese has no back-shift, so this is easy to forget.
She said me that she was tired. → She told me that she was tired.
say takes no personal object; tell requires one: told me.
He told that he was ill. → He said that he was ill.
The reverse error: told always needs an object.
Memory tip
Work through the three steps in order: tense → pronouns → time and place. Most marks are lost by doing step one and forgetting the rest.
Summary
- Shift one step back: is → was · will → would · have → had · can → could.
- Change pronouns to fit the reporter; now/today/here → then/that day/there.
- say takes no personal object; tell requires one.
Practise this lesson
Do exercises with an explanation for every question, take mini tests and track your progress on GrammUp.