Tense Changes
Because we usually report about something later, we usually change the verb tense:
| Direct Speech | Indirect Speech |
|---|---|
| present simple ‘I play football,’ said Dennis. |
→ past simple Dennis said (that) she played football. |
| present continuous ‘I am playing football,’ said Dennis. |
→ past continuous Dennis said (that) she was playing football. |
| past simple ‘I played football,’ said Dennis. |
→ past perfect Dennis said (that) she had played football. |
| present perfect ‘I have played football,’ said Dennis. |
→ past perfect Dennis said (that) she had played football. |
| past perfect ‘I had played football,’ said Dennis. |
→ past perfect Dennis said (that) she had played football. |
| past continuous ‘I was playing football,’ said Dennis. |
→ past perfect continuous Dennis said (that) she had been playing football. |
| am going to ‘I am going to play football,’ said Dennis. |
→ was going to Dennis said (that) she was going to play football. |
| will ‘I will play football,’ said Dennis. |
→ would Dennis said (that) she would play football. |
| can ‘I can play football,’ said Dennis. |
→ could Dennis said (that) she could play football. |
| may ‘I may play football,’ said Dennis. |
→ might Dennis said (that) she might play football. |
| must ‘I must play football,’ said Dennis. |
→ had to / must (less common) Dennis said (that) she had to / must play football |
We can see that the changes in verbs move back in time: present simple becomes past simple, present perfect becomes past perfect, will becomes would etc. We call this change “backshift” because the verbs “shift back” in time.
The past perfect doesn’t change, however, because we can’t go back in time more than the past perfect:
Direct speech: “I had played football,” said Claire.
Reported speech: Claire said that she had played football.
These verbs stay the same:
| Direct Speech | Indirect Speech |
|---|---|
| could ‘I could play football,’ said Claire. |
→ could Claire said (that) she could play football. |
| should ‘I should play football,’ said Claire. |
→ should Claire said (that) she should play football. |
| might ‘I might football,’ said Claire. |
→ might Claire said (that) she might play football. |
| ought to ‘I ought to play football,’ said Claire. |
→ ought to Claire said ought to play football. |
| used to ‘I used to play football,’ said Claire. |
→ used to Claire said (that) she used to play football. |
Tests Status
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