Verb tenses in reported speech

Verb tenses in reported speech.

When we talk about what someone says, we can use either “direct speech” or “indirect speech”.

Nowadays most people talk about “reported speech” instead of “indirect speech”.

In direct speech we use the actual words that were spoken:

• The girl said, “My name is Angela”

In indirect or reported speech, this would be:

• The girl said that her name was Angela.  

In this example “said” is a “reporting verb”. Other reporting verbs include “asked”, “shouted”, “whispered”, “complained”, “suggested”, “commented”, “remarked” and “told”.

Notice that although Angela says that her name is Angela, we change this in reported speech to say that her name was Angela. This change is called a “backshift”

This is how backshift works for different tenses:

• present simple becomes past simple
• present continuous becomes past continuous
• past simple becomes past perfect
• present perfect becomes past perfect
• past continuous becomes past perfect continuous
• present perfect continuous becomes past perfect continuous

Let’s look at some examples. In reported speech:

• Angela said, “I am cold”, becomes Angela said she was cold. (Present simple – past simple)
• Leroy said, “Dad is coming home”, becomes Leroy said that Dad was coming home. (Present continuous – past continuous)
• Angela said, “I went to London last year”, becomes Angela said she had been to London last year. (Past simple – past perfect)
• Leroy asked, “Have you read War and Peace?”, becomes Leroy asked if she had read War and Peace. (Present perfect – past perfect)
• Angela said, “I was walking to the shops”, becomes Angela said that she had been walking to the shops. (Past continuous – past perfect continuous)
• Leroy said, “I have been studying French for five years”, becomes Leroy said that he had been studying French for five years. (Present perfect continuous – past perfect continuous)

We also need to know that some modal verbs change in reported speech. For example:

• Can becomes could
  • Angela said, “I can drive a car” becomes Angela said she could drive a car.
• Will becomes would
  • Leroy said, “I will see you at the cinema” becomes Leroy said he would see me at the cinema.

There are exceptions, of course. There always are exceptions! The most common one is when the person is talking about something that is recognised as a universal truth. So:

• Angela said, “Water freezes as zero degrees”, becomes Angela told us that water freezes at zero degrees.
• Leroy said, “The sun rises in the East”, becomes Leroy said that the sun rises in the East.

Similarly, we often don’t use a backshift when something is still true. For example:

• Angela said, “I don’t like tomatoes”, becomes Angela said that she doesn’t like tomatoes.

This means that she still doesn’t like tomatoes. But it’s also correct to write: Angela said that she didn’t like tomatoes. This means that at some time in the past she didn’t like tomatoes. Perhaps she does now – we don’t actually know, because this sentence doesn’t tell us.

It’s also worth remembering that we don’t normally use a backshift with past perfect, could, might, should or would. For example:

• “You have never given me a present”, Leroy complained, becomes Leroy complained that I have never given him a present. (Although we could also write: Leroy complained that I have never given him a present. This would mean that at the time of Leroy’s complaint I had never given him a present, but perhaps I have given him a present since then.
•  “Could you see the mountain from your hotel?” Angela asked, becomes Angela asked if I could see the mountain from my hotel.
• Leroy remarked, “I might go to visit Grandma”, becomes Leroy remarked that he might go to visit Grandma.
• Angela said, “I should go home soon”, becomes Angela said that she should go home soon.
• “Mum, I would like a new coat for my birthday”, Leroy said, becomes Leroy told his Mum that he would like a new dress for his birthday.

_{Posted by Graham}