When we want to report what someone said without speech marks and without necessarily using exactly the same words, we can use indirect speech (also called reported speech). For example:

• Direct speech: “We’re quite cold in here.”
• Indirect speech: They say (that) they’re cold.

When we report what someone says in the present simple, as in the above sentence, we normally don’t change the tense, we simply change the subject. However, when we report things in the past, we usually change the tense by moving it one step back, this is konwn as BACKSHIFT. For example, in the following sentence the present simple becomes the past simple in indirect speech:

• Direct speech: “I have a new car.”
• Indirect speech: He said he had a new car.

IF YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT REPORTED SPEECH CLICK HERE

TO LEARN ABOUT REPORTING VERBS AND THEIR STRUCTURES CLICK HERE

IF YOU WANT TO START PRACTICING REPORTE SPEECH DO THE EXERCISE BELOW.