Reported speech simple past - past perfect
Simple Past
The simple past tense usually changes to the past perfect in reported speech.
Change of tenses
The tenses, word-order, pronouns may be different from those in the direct speech sentence. The Past Perfect Tense does not change in the Reported Speech.
Direct speech | Reported speech | |
Ann said: | "I want ice-cream." | Ann said that she wanted ice-cream. |
Simple Past | Simple Present | Simple Past |
Simple Past |
Simple Past Present Perfect Past Perfect |
Past Perfect |
Simple Past | will | would |
Reported speech 'to be' | ||
Simple Past | am/is/are | was/were |
Simple Past | was/were have/has been had been |
had been |
English Reported speech exercises
Reported speech - indirect speech with free online exercises, Reported speech - indirect speech examples and sentences. Online exercises Reported speech - indirect speech, questions and negative sentences.
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