She said, “We will be in Vancouver next year.” They told us (that) they had been living in San Diego. They mentioned (that) they had been waiting for 3 hours Kendall told me (that) she had just finished her homework. “I had just finished my homework”, Kendall told me. Gayle said (that) Mike ( had) arrived on Sunday. In reported speech, the simple past ( I did) often stays the same or it changes to the past perfect ( I had done).Įxamples of Verb Changes in Reported Speech Quoted Speech Verbs usually change to the past in reported speech because we are talking about the past. Remember that in reported speech, there are no quotation marks. “The capital of Canada is Ottawa.” → Byron said that the capital of Canada is Ottawa. This is also true if the reported statement is a general truth. However, often if the speaker is reporting something soon after it has been said, there is no change in the verb tense. Usually, the tense in reported speech is one tense back in time from the tense in direct speech. In a sentence where the main verb is already in the past tense, then the verb changes to another past tense verb as it is moving further into the past. The main verb in the reported speech sentence is also in the past tense. The verb is used in the past tense, said, which indicates that something was spoken in the past. Generally, reported speech is introduced by the verb say (Other reporting verbs include tell, mention, inform). When reporting what someone said, we have to pay careful attention to our verb tenses.
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