In  order to get a better comprehension of this topic it is important to talk about the direct speech first.

The direct speech consists of reporting what a person or people say “at the moment”, this means that we report something in the present.

One example of this is the next sentence:

 

• Direct speech: “Paul says that he wants some apples

 

This example that you can see here is written in simple present, what we do in the reported speech is to say what the person said but, in this case, in the past.

We’re going to use the same example:

 

• Indirect speech: “Paul SAID that he WANTED some apples”.

 

As you can see here, the verbs are changed into the past; this is too similar to what happens in Spanish, what someone says in the present we say it to another person in past.

Up to this point this may look very easy to do, however, the difficult part comes when we have to apply different conjugations, structures and change some words.

The main things we have to change are some time words, possessive adjectives, possessive pronouns and demonstrative adjectives.

Let’s begin with an example with the demonstrative adjectives.

 

• Direct speech: “I want THIS cell phone”

• Direct speech: “THESE shoes are beautiful”

 

Here we have two sentences in the direct form, in order to change it Into the reported speech we have to change the demonstrative adjective into its opposite, this means that if the person uses the word “this” we’re going to change it into “that” and if the person uses “these” we will change it into “those” and vice versa.

 

• Reported speech: She said that she wanted THAT cell phone.

• Reported speech: She said that THOSE shoes were beautiful.

 

You can notice there that the verb has to change too, as it was explained; the possessive adjectives are going to change as well.

 

• Direct speech: “MY dog is really cute”

 

Here you have to be careful and pay attention to whoever is saying the sentence; this is because the respective change that has to be done, if it is a man, a woman or two people for example, let’s check it now

• Indirect speech: Tiana says that HER dog is really cute

• Indirect speech: Ray says that HIS dog is really cute

 

Next there is a table in which you will find the necessary conjugations in order for you to form the reported speech

 

Told Speech      ------ Reported Speech

Simple Present   ------Simple Past

Simple Past       ------- Past Perfect

Present Perfect ------- Past perfect

Will ----------------------- Would

 

 

  

So according to this table if a person says something about a past event the other person has to report it in the structure of the past perfect.

Let’s check it with a different example this time:

 

• Direct speech: I will go to japan the next year

• Indirect speech: he said that he would go to japan the next year

 

With this information you're goint o be able to answer the exercises in this website.