DIRECT & INDIRECT SPEECH

Let's say you want to retell something, and not as gossip, or may be. Anyway, it'll be necessary to bear in mind that REPORTED SPEECH (also called indirect) is the way to do it.

Below you will find synthetic information about the tenses change to be taken into account to do it properly.

Backshift in Reported Speech

direct speech reported speech

He said: "I feel sad. "He said that he felt sad.

In simple terms, the structure of reported speech is:

reporting clause [+ conjuntion] + reported clause

reporting clauseconjunctionreported clause

John said(that)he was hungry.

John's original words: "I am hungry."

We sometimes change the tense of the reported clause by moving it back one tense. For example, present simple goes back one tense to past simple. We call this change "backshift".

When do we use backshift?

We use backshift when it is logical to use backshift. So, for example, if two minutes ago John said "I am hungry" and I am now telling his sister, I might NOT use backshift (because John is still hungry):

• John just said that he is hungry.

But if yesterday John said "I am hungry" and I am now telling his sister, I would likely use backshift:

• Yesterday, John said that he was hungry. [We hope that John has eaten since yesterday ;-) ]

So we use backshift SOMETIMES but not always. And WHEN we use backshift, here's how it works with these common tenses and modals:

We NEVER use backshift when the original words are:

• past perfect

• could

• might

• would

• should

Remember:

• If a situation is still true, backshift is optional.

• For a general truth there is no need for backshift.

Look at the following examples. See if you can understand when and why they use backshift:

tenses and modals