If you still want to study this more in depth, you can find this class in Unit 145 of the C2 level of our course.Īlthough it may seem a bit complicated now, remember that practice makes perfect.

He asked if we had ever been to South Africa.Įasy, isn’t it? Now you know how to describe what someone else has said.

Jessica asked if I could write that email for her.

Paul told me that my aunt would celebrate her birthday next week.

Tom asked where we were playing soccer today.

Trina said that our cousin would go to Moscow the following week.

Use the table to determine the corresponding verb tense.

Start the sentence by indicating the person that made the statement.

To solve them, keep in mind the tips that you’ve learned:

He asked, “ Have you ever been to South Africa before?”.

“ Can you write that email for me?” asked Jessica.

“My aunt will celebrate her birthday next week,” Paul told me.

“Where are you playing soccer today?” asked Tom.

“Our cousin will go to Moscow next week,” said Trina.

Now that you have a clearer idea about indirect speech in English, we invite you to test your skills with these exercises.Ĭhange each of the following sentences into reported speech in English. Remember that on our English course, you can study the lessons we share on the blog in more detail. If you have any doubts about the verb tenses, we suggest that you review them before moving on to the reported speech grammar exercises that we offer below. With the modal verbs, you should make the following changes:

Keep the following table in mind, since it will be very helpful: It’s also important to start the sentence by indicating who made the statement, for example:Įach verb tense in direct speech has a corresponding tense in indirect speech. To do this, we had to change the sentence from present simple to past simple.

In the first sentence, Sandra says something while in the second, a third person relates what Sandra said.

Sandra said that Mike had to work all week. Sandra said, “Mike has to work all week.” If you were using direct speech, you’d only have to repeat the same sentence and put it between quotation marks, like this:īut, in the case of indirect or reported speech, you should change the verb tense.įor example, if the sentence is in the present tense, you must change it to the past tense. I want to register Changing the verb tense

Reported speech exercises all tenses