Reporting Verbs

When using reported speech, most students learn to use "say" and "tell":

Examples:

John told me he was going to stay late at work.
Peter said he wanted to visit his parents that weekend.

These forms are perfectly correct for reporting what others have said. However, there are a number of other reporting verbs which can more accurately describe what someone has said. These verbs take a variety of structures. The following list gives you reporting verbs in various categories based on sentence structure. Notice that a number of verbs can take more than one form.

REPORTED SPEECH

SUMMARY OF REPORTING VERBS

Note that some reporting verbs may appear in more than one of the following groups.

1. Verbs followed by 'if' or 'whether' + clause:

ask know remember

say see

2. Verbs followed by a that-clause:

add admit agree announce answer argue boast claim comment complain confirm consider deny

doubt estimate explain fear feel insist mention observe persuade propose remark remember repeat

reply report reveal say state suggest suppose tell think understand warn

3. Verbs followed by either a that-clause or a to-infinitive:

decide expect guarantee hope

promise swear threaten

4. Verbs followed by a that-clause containing should
(but note that it may be omitted, leaving a subject + zero-infinitive):

advise beg demand

insist prefer propose

recommend request suggest

5. Verbs followed by a clause starting with a question word:

decide describe discover discuss explain forget guess

imagine know learn realise remember reveal say

see suggest teach tell think understand wonder

6. Verbs followed by object + to-infinitive

advise ask beg command

forbid instruct invite

teach tell warn

Reported Speech

Indirect Speech (also referred to as 'reported speech') refers to a sentence reporting what someone has said. It is almost always used in spoken English.
If the reporting verb (i.e. said) is in the past, the reported clause will be in a past form. This form is usually "one tense back" into the past from the original.

Examples:

• He said the test was difficult.
• She said she watched TV every day.

DIRECT SPEECH	REPORTED SPEECH
Simple Present	Simple Past
Present Continuous	Past Continuous
Simple Past	Past Perfect
Past Perfect	Past Perfect
Present Perfect	Past Perfect
Past Continuous	Past Perfect Continuous
Am/is/are going to	Was/were going to
Future will	Would
Present Perfect Cont	Past Perfect Cont
Can	Could
May	Might
Must	Had to / must
Could	Could
Would	Would
Should	Should
Might	Might
This	That
Today	That day
Yesterday	The day before
Tomorrow	The next day/the following day
Last night	The night before
Last week/month/year	The week/month/year before
Now	Then
Here	There
Note1: if we report sth that is still true now, we sometimes use the same tense as the speaker. Example: Speaker: “the population of Brazil is around 170 million”, he said. R.Speech: He said the population of Brazil is around 170 million.
Note 2: Pronouns and possessive adjectives change in Reported Speech Example: Speaker: “I´m only on holiday with my friend”, Caroline said. R.Speech: Caroline said that she was only on holiday with her friend.

More examples

       Direct Speech                                       Reported Speech

He said, "I live in Paris."	He said he lived in Paris.
He said, "I am cooking dinner."	He said he was cooking dinner.
He said, "I have visted London twice."	He said he had visited London twice.
He said, "I went to New York last week."	He said he had gone to New York the week before.
He said, "I had already eaten."	He said he had already eaten.
He said, "I am going to find a new job."	He said he was going to find a new job.
He said, "I will give Jack a call."	He said he would give Jack a call.