Reported speech: introduction

When you use it

You use reported speech to pass on what someone said without repeating their exact words: Tom said he was tired. The original sentence was I am tired, but it is now told from your point of view, later in time. Because of this shift, pronouns change, time words change, and the verb usually moves one step into the past. The same mechanism reports questions, requests and thoughts.

How it is formed

A reporting verb in the past (said, told, asked) is followed by a clause. The word that is optional after say and tell.

Time and place words move as well.

Reported questions keep normal statement order and use no question mark. A yes/no question is introduced by if or whether; a wh-question keeps its question word. Orders and requests use tell or ask plus a to-infinitive.

Examples

• "I am tired." → Tom said he was tired.
• "We live in Kyiv." → They said they lived in Kyiv.
• "I have finished." → Anna told me she had finished.
• "I will call you tomorrow." → He said he would call me the next day.
• "I can't come." → She said she couldn't come.
• "Where do you work?" → Tom asked me where I worked.
• "Are you hungry?" → Anna asked if I was hungry.
• "Don't touch it." → He told us not to touch it.

When the reported fact is still true and the report follows soon after, English speakers often keep the original tense: Tom said he is tired is acceptable if Tom is still tired. The backshift is always correct, so use it when in doubt.

Common mistakes

• ✗ He said me that he was busy.
  ✓ He told me that he was busy. / He said that he was busy.
  Tell needs a person after it; say does not take one. Both correspond to сказав / сказал, and Ukrainian and Russian allow сказав мені / сказал мне, which is why said me feels natural. In English the person after the verb selects tell.
• ✗ She said she is tired.
  ✓ She said she was tired.
  Ukrainian and Russian keep the tense of the original words: Вона сказала, що вона втомлена / Она сказала, что она устала. English moves the verb one step back after a past reporting verb. This is the main thing to learn in reported speech, because nothing in your first language prepares you for it.
• ✗ He asked me where do I work.
  ✓ He asked me where I worked.
  A reported question is not a question any more. It has statement word order, no do or does, and no question mark. In Ukrainian and Russian direct and indirect questions have the same word order, so the change is easy to forget.
• ✗ She asked me that I was hungry.
  ✓ She asked me if I was hungry.
  A reported yes/no question is introduced by if or whether, which corresponds to чи / ли. That introduces statements only.
• ✗ He told to me the news.
  ✓ He told me the news.
  Tell takes the person directly, with no preposition. The pattern said to me exists, but told to me does not.

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