Reported speech: tense changes
• If the reporting verb is in the past (eg said), we usually have to change the tense of what the person actually said. The general rule is go back one tense but there are some exceptions.
• With past perfect simple and continuous, there is no tense change.
|
| Direct speech |
Reported speech |
| present simple: Sam doesn't play hockey very often. |
past simple: Fiona said that Sam didn't play hockey very often. |
| present continuous: I'm winning! |
past continuous: Carol shouted to us that she was winning. |
| present perfect simple: I've never been given a trophy before! |
past perfect simple: Paul said that he'd never been given a trophy before. |
| present perfect continuous: They've been playing for four hours. |
past perfect continuous: She told us that they'd been playing for four hours. |
| past simple: We lost the match. |
past perfect simple: Finally he told us that they had lost the match. |
| past continuous: We were winning until half-time. |
past perfect continuous: She said they had been winning until
half-time. |
