1. ISE II (B2)
REPORTED
SPEECH

2. STATEMENTS:
 REPORTING VERBS: say and tell
 PAY ATTENTION TO THE VERB IN
THE REPORTING CLAUSE:
If the verb is in the present tense, the
change in tenses is not needed:
 Example: “It is hot in here”, he says
He says it is hot in here.
If the reporting verb is in the past
tense, we need to make some
changes:

3. CHANGES:
 VERBS: tense backshift: change from a
present tense to a past tense:
DIRECT SPEECH REPORTED SPEECH
PRESENT SIMPLE PAST SIMPLE
PRESENT CONTINUOUS PAST CONTINUOUS
PAST SIMPLE PERFECT PAST PERFECT
PAST CONTINUOUS PAST PERFECT
CONTINUOUS
PRESENT PERFECT PAST PERFECT
PAST PERFECT PAST PERFECT
PAST PERFECT
CONTINUOUS
PAST PERFECT
CONTINUOUS
FUTURE SIMPLE WOULD + INFINITIVE

4. CHANGES:
 MODAL VERBS:
 PRONOUNS:
DIRECT SPEECH REPORTED SPEECH
CAN COULD
MAY MIGHT
MUST MUST
HAVE TO HAD TO
WILL WOULD
DIRECT SPEECH REPORTED
SPEECH
THIS THAT
THESE THOSE

5. CHANGES:
 TIME EXPRESSIONS:
DIRECT SPEECH REPORTED SPEECH
TODAY THAT DAY
YESTERDAY THE DAY BEFORE/ THE
PREVIOUS DAY
THEDAY BEFORE YESTERDAY TWO DAYS AGO
TOMORROW THE NEXT DAY/ THE
FOLLOWING DAY
THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW IN TWO DAYS’ TIME
NEXT WEEK/YEAR/MONTH THE NEXT…/THE
FOLLOWING…
LAST WEEK/YEAR/MONTH THE PREVIOUS…/THE …
BEFORE

6. CHANGES
 TIME EXPRESSIONS:
DIRECT SPEECH REPORTED
SPEECH
HERE THERE
AGO BEFORE
NOW THEN
TONIGHT THAT NIGHT

7. COMMANDS: CHANGES
1. For pronouns, modals and the other
time expression, the changes are the
same as in statements.
2. Verbs follow the patterns in the
examples below:
SUBJECT +REPORTING
VERB
+INDIRECT
OBJECT
+INFINITIVE
HE TOLD THEM TO GO AWAY
THEY TOLD THE MINERS TO GO BACK
TO WORK

8. QUESTIONS: CHANGES
 Verbs, modals, time expressions and pronuns suffer the
same changes as in statements.
 The only thing that changes is WORD ORDER: there is
neither subject-verb inversion nor auxiliar verbs (do, did)
 Two types of questions in English:
 YES-NO QUESTIONS: the conjunctions that introduces
the question in reported speech is if ir whether:
 Example: “Are you happy with your new job?” he wanted
to know
• He wanted to know if /whether I was happy with
my new job
 WH- QUESTIONS: we maintain the same pronoun of the
question:
 Example:”How long have you been here?” she asked
She asked me how long I had been there